Revisiting BLOOD DRIVE: Hilariously Over-the-Top 80s Carnage

Since today’s thirty-somethings began shaping the image of contemporary pop culture, we have been experiencing a return to the past on an unprecedented scale. Kung Fury, the staggering prices of VHS tapes at online auctions, or John Carpenter’s second life—this time musical—are just a few examples. Blood Drive, SyFy channel series is another one, and once again a very successful one.

The series created by James Roland has a lot to offer. The idea of a vulgar world of cops and organizers of illegal races pulls you in instantly. Cars that feed on human blood, people fighting over water, a cyborg who outshines Scarlett Johansson’s role in Ghost in the Shell, and massive reserves of absurdity effectively hold the viewer’s attention for the full forty-five minutes.

The main male protagonist may be somewhat irritating—a righteous, muscular Boy Scout in a police uniform. Arthur is a stereotypical character from action films mass-produced in the 1980s, but it seems that this is exactly what he was meant to be, and for that reason he often becomes the object of mockery (Grace, forced to team up with him, constantly addresses him per Barbie).

Grace D’Argento (could this be a tribute to Dario Argento?) is a far more interesting character. She is an extreme version of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot’s version, of course), and I do not mean superpowers, but rather the achievement of excellent proportions between delicacy and strength. Female characters in this type of production are often either objects of male pleasure or exact replicas of testosterone-fueled heroes in bodies of the opposite sex. In the case of Blood Drive, we are dealing with a completely different approach.

In the second episode, Grace knocks a chubby Elvis to the ground with a single blow to the groin, then, in a sensual voice, confesses that she needs to take a shower. Sergeant Gower also comes off very well (unfortunately she was contracted for only one episode), as does the cyborg Aki, who resembles a woman from the real world more than Tessa from Transformers: Age of Extinction or April O’Neil as portrayed by Megan Fox.

Today’s reproductions of the trash culture of the 1980s often surpass it not because of technological development or larger budgets, but because of their awareness of their place in history. There is no doubt that Blood Drive was created by fans who have a perfect feel for the atmosphere of exploitation cinema.

In the first episode, the tacky rock music in the vein of Skillet—associated with late twentieth-century horror films (for example the dreadful Dracula 2000 and its nu metal soundtrack)—is somewhat distracting, but fortunately it disappears without a trace in the second episode.

A slightly larger number of gore scenes would not hurt either, because although there really is a lot of the titular blood on screen, it is often spilled off-camera. Aside from that, I have absolutely no complaints.

The plot is well divided into a main storyline (the race and the fight against an evil corporation) and additional threads that drive the action of individual episodes (in the second one, this is a confrontation with cannibals running a seedy bar).

Fans of the genre should be delighted, especially those who feed exclusively on nostalgia and reach only for those bad films that were released back on VHS tapes.