ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD (2023)

New On Demand and digital download from Level 33 Entertainment!
Directed by Bucky Le Boeuf, Cooper Roberts.
Written by Bucky Le Boeuf, Cooper Roberts.
Starring Logan Riley Bruner, Emma Chasse, Mena Suvari, Eddie Griffin, Neel Sethi, Tom O’Keefe, Ronald Guttman, Louis Mustillo, Emily Casey, Johnny Zito.
Check out the trailer here!!

It’s 1989 and Bucky Le Boeuf (Logan Riley Bruner) is a teen filmmaker with dreams of making epic dramas with his best friend Vish (Neel Sethi). Alas, their sample tapes have been rejected over and over to get into local festivals. When a new festival comes into town run by world-famous arthouse director Hans Von Franz (Ronald Guttman), Bucky is disheartened because it has to be a horror film and alas, Bucky pukes at the sight of blood. But when a meteor lands in their yard, Bucky’s drunk father (Tom O’Keefe) picks it up and is infected with a zombie virus. Bucky decides to forgo mourning his dead pop and use his reanimated corpse as the central monster in his new film, an epic zombie drama. Bucky won’t let his aversion to blood get in the way of stardom so he casts a wannabe Hollywood starlet (Mena Suvari), hires a camera shy wannabe actress with a taste for horror (Emma Chasse), and dodges a detective hired to find his dead father (Eddie Griffin), in order to finish his movie and get it to the local film festival at all costs.

ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD, not to be confused with the Irish folk horror flick ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH released earlier in the year, is a light-hearted horror comedy about a boy with a dream to make movies. Since director Bucky Le Boeuf named his lead character after himself, it would seem that this is a highly personal film. Now I doubt director Bucky ever had to film during a zombie outbreak, but I think a lot of the heart and trials and turbulations that occur in ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD serves as an accurate representation of what the filmmaker had to go through to make some of his first films. That heart is prevalent though most of the film, as character Bucky has an infectious passion that cannot be denied. As a grown-kid who once dreamed of making his own films (and I’m sure there are many out there as well), this is a film that really captures that love of cinema and movie-making.

The cast really elevates ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD. While he is quite twerpy, there is something undeniably likable about Logan Riley Bruner as Bucky. While it is a bit effed up that he really doesn’t have much remorse over the death of his dad and other people in his life who eventually succumb to the zombie plague, I couldn’t help but love his never say die attitude. Opposite Bruner is Emma Chasse who plays the sort of love interest for Bucky. Chasse has that star power and will most likely grow to have a good long career in acting as she has great comic timing and delivers a bold and strong character, which is quite the opposite of the nebbish Bucky. The real treat, though, is Mena Suvari, who despite this being a low budgeter, gives her all with a wonderfully funny and subtly complex character as a starlet in her own mind. She deserves much bigger and better roles and should be applauded for helping out with an appearance in this low budgeter.

The gore is mostly just spattered blood and body parts purchased from the after-Halloween sale at the Spirit Store, at least, that’s the case in the first half of the film. Later, the effects get amped to the max as more people get infected and the climax involves Bucky facing off against a giant turtle, which I can honestly say, I didn’t predict and have never seen before. By the end of this one, anyone who is left is dancing in a torrential downpour of blood and guts and it’s just downright infectious. The film basically takes place within one house, which Bucky uses as his own film set, but because the characters are so genuinely likable, it’s easy to look past the low fi details and just enjoy the positive movie-making vibes.

ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD is one of those films you can’t really categorize. It definitely tells the tale from a teen’s perspective and has a sort of wholesome, teen movie vibe to it, but it also has some vague sexual references, a lot of swearing, and a whole lot of blood. It’s not exactly kids horror as it has more emotional heft and bloody bite to it, but I think as a pre-teen and teenager, I would have loved this one. It reminded me of the vibes I got from films like EXPLORERS, THE GATE, and LABYRINTH, but films were made differently back in the day. Back then, the kids swore and talked about sex. Blood wasn’t a surefire indication of seeing an R in the rating. But while I wouldn’t say ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD is as frightening as THE WITCHES or even CORALINE, I do think that it falls in that category of all-ages horror nevertheless.

Or maybe it’s because the film deals with the love of film that it feels so wholesome. All I know is that I felt good after watching this one. Uplifted and yes, downright inspired by Bucky’s determination to finish his movie at all costs. ALL YOU NEED IS BLOOD feels like it was made by a teenage John Waters. There’s an innocence to this film…it just so happens to be covered in layers and layers of blood. It’s an odd little movie and I think if you ever wanted to make a movie, even just a little bit, you’ll definitely take a shine to it.