Episode 122: Blade (1998)

“Remember what we told you. You keep your eyes open. They’re everywhere.” We’re popping in for a quick blood rave with 1998’s Marvel Comics adaptation Blade.

Titular daywalker Blade (Wesley Snipes), otherwise known as Eric Brooks, stalks the streets to hunt and kill vampires, driven by a thirst for revenge after his mother was bitten before going into labour, cursing him with a bloodlust that he slakes with a serum administered by his ornery father figure/weapons maker Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). When the undead, bratty upstart Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) starts challenging the established vampire hierarchy and attempting to raise an ancient blood god, Blade teams up with a recently-bitten haematologist to infiltrate the gang and kill Deacon – but the wily bloodsucker has his own plans…

Preceding the first big screen X-Men movie by 2 years, and the establishment of the now-all-conquering MCU by a decade, British director Stephen Norrington’s gritty, violent, stylised picture stood in sharp contrast to the increasingly daffy Joel Schumacher Batman movies, turning a tidy profit on a moderate budget and helping lay the groundwork not just for future Marvel adaptations, but also the leather dusters and techno-fuelled kung fu that The Matrix would send stratospheric before the decade’s end. But, does Blade still deliver the goods? Or will Gali, Patrick and Devlin end up ice skating uphill trying to defend it?

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