Review: ‘Bloodsucking Bastards’ isn’t as funny or frightening as that title suggests
An obvious and meandering mash-up of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Office Space,” Brian James O’Connell’s comedy-horror “Bloodsucking Bastards” only occasionally matches the inspiration of its jokey title.
When the arrival of an aggressive new sales manager (Pedro Pascal) seems to coincide with grisly goings-on at his soul-siphoning marketing firm, everyman employee Evan Sanders (Fran Kranz) rightfully suspects that decidedly unorthodox methods are being implemented to boost anemic numbers.
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As directed by O’Connell and written by the Los Angeles comedy troupe Dr. God along with Ryan Mitts, the film takes a long time to get going because of all the prolonged, glib chit-chat that loses whatever satirical edge it might have initially possessed.
By the time those involuntary transfusions finally kick in — and they do so in ridiculously copious amounts — the languid production emerges less as a clever humor-horror hybrid than as a slacker splatter comedy.
There’s more suspense involved in waiting for a page to come out of a printer.
Just like Evan and the rest of his unmotivated colleagues, the creative team behind “Bloodsucking Bastards” never works overtime to take this self-amused enterprise to a more profitable place.
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“Bloodsucking Bastards”
MPAA rating: None
Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes
Playing: Laemmle’s NoHo 7, North Hollywood
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