Bordello of Blood is one of those many horror films that was met with extremely harsh reviews when it was first released, but is in fact much better than it seems to get credit for. The second feature film of the Tales from the Crypt horror franchise, the vampire film exhibited just as much comedy as bloody vampire gore. For this or whichever other reasons, the movie has also gotten a tremendous amount of flak from fans over the years. Personally, I say it’s much better than it has gotten credit for, delivering a highly amusing story and succeeding as a Tales from the Crypt adaptation.
One of the more surprising aspects of Bordello of Blood is that its story was conceived by the creative writing team of Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. You may recognize those names as the pair behind the immensely successful Back to the Future franchise, which Zemeckis also directed. As the story goes, Zemeckis and Gale had actually devised Bordello of Blood fresh out of college in the early ’70s, as the pair envisioned shooting an exploitation film about “a whorehouse full of vampires.” The film didn’t end up getting made at the time, but producer John Milius noted that the story was “pretty darn good.”
Of course, vampiric prostitutes went to the wayside as Zemeckis and Gale pursued other film projects, with the Bordello of Blood concept remaining on the shelf for decades. It had a second chance at life in the early ’90s, after Zemeckis had been given an offer to depart Universal. Hoping to convince him to stick around, the studio quickly chose Bordello of Blood to serve as the second Tales from the Crypt movie adaptation, following the success of Demon Knight.
It’s not clear exactly how much was changed to modernize the original screenplay, but the initial draft from Zemeckis and Gale was rewritten by Gilbert Adler and A.L. Katz. Additionally, Adler was also set to direct based on his work as a showrunner for Tales from the Crypt. For the lead role of Rafe, the duo had expressed an interest in casting Daniel Baldwin, but producers pushed for Dennis Miller to be cast instead. Because Miller wanted a million dollar paycheck for the role, the filmmakers were forced to cut $275,000 from the special FX budget to pay him.
Casting issues with the lead aside, Bordello of Blood otherwise does have a pretty solid cast. Joining Miller in the film are Erika Eleniak (The Blob) as Catherine, Angie Everhart (Last Action Hero) as Lilith, Chris Sarandon (Fright Night) as Reverend Current, Corey Feldman (The Goonies) as Caleb, and Phil Fondacaro (Willow) as Vincent. William Sadler, the lead from Demon Knight, also has a cameo appearance. Of course, John Kassir is back as the Crypt Keeper in the opening and closing of the film.
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In the film, private investigator Rafe Guttman (Miller) is hired to investigate the disappearance of a young man (Feldman), leading him to a bordello run by the sinister Lilith (Everhart) and a pack of bloodthirsty vampires. To stop them, Rafe must team up with a televangelist (Sarandon) and Catherine (Eleniak), the young lady looking for her brother who disappeared. As a horror-comedy film, Bordello of Blood is also packed with humor from beginning to end, though it’s not short on its vampire mayhem, either.
Like many horror films from years past, Bordello of Blood was not met with a very warm reception when it was first released. Perhaps some of the disappointment was due to the drastically different tone the film had compared to its predecessor. While Demon Knight leaned more towards horror, Bordello of Blood is certainly much more of an over-the-top comedy. Maybe horror fans just weren’t as keen on vampire comedy at the time, with many just not feeling the mix between Miller’s comedy style and a bloody vampire movie.
However, it could just as easily be argued that Bordello of Blood felt more like an extended episode of Tales from the Crypt than Demon Knight. The HBO series was also known for its dark humor, and watching Bordello of Blood, it’s not difficult to understand why the Crypt Keeper would be so fond of the story. The film might be more funny than scary, and not likely you keep you up at night, but the same can also be said for many episodes of Tales from the Crypt. Even if not everyone was satisfied with the release at the time, the film does feel like the show, even if it wasn’t originally written to be that way.
Fortunately, time has a been a little bit more kind to the film, and it has gotten a bit more recognition in recent years. In 2015, Bordello of Blood was given a special edition Blu-ray/DVD release by Scream Factory. The following year, a 20th anniversary screening was held, which included appearances from Gilbert Adler, special FX artist Todd Masters, and even John Kassir via webcam. It would seem that Demon Knight remains the most popular of the Tales from the Crypt films, but Bordello of Blood is not without its charm, and even for those who disliked the movie when it first came out, it’s certainly worth a revisit.
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