R. Jacob’s Honeycut – “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust”

Some people grew up with “Interview with the Vampire;” for the younger readers, it may have been the “Twilight” series. My go-to blood-sucking horror is “Vampire Hunter D.” 

I first heard of the notorious vampire slayer in elementary school. For some reason, I gravitated toward anime before it was cool. I knew of “Dragon Ball Z,” “Gundam” and “Outlaw Star” from “Cartoon Network’s” “Toonami” block but there was a whole world I had yet to discover, full of gore and nudity. My friend, Danny, told me about the original “Vampire Hunter D” movie and I knew I had to see it. I can’t remember if I first rented the VHS from “Family Video” or saw it on “ShowTime Beyond’s” “Anime Beyond” segment, but I did in fact see it, as a rambunctious 13-year-old. I was amazed by the level of violence but more so, about the world it brought to life. It’s about 25 years later and I am still in awe of the world-building in these movies. 

With dozens of novels and two movies, where can I even start explaining the backstory of this franchise? I’ll leave it to an expert on the subject. This Bonsai Pop video helped me out in my research. My big takeaways were that these movies take place around the year 12000 A.D.  and that humans nearly wiped each other out with nuclear weapons in the 1990s. From there, the vampires arose, living as the aristocratic controllers of this world, while the humans fought amongst themselves. There were giant mech battles, alien vs. vampire wars and even more madness. So, I can’t begin to get into all that. I’ve never read the novels; I’ve only seen the two movies. 

You don’t need to see the first “Vampire Hunter D” movie, which was made in 1985, to enjoy “Bloodlust” which was released in 2000. It gives you the same sparse backstory, which leaves a lot to the imagination: Vampires ruled for thousands of years then had their downfall. Now, humans hire bounty hunters to snuff out the remaining undead. 

“Bloodlust” is based off the third book in the series. We pick up where a vampire, Baron Meier Link, abducts an upper-class woman, Charlotte Elbourne. From there, Charolette’s father hires our vampire hunter, D, to track them down. What does D stand for? Who knows? Anyway, it turns out, her older brother has also hired the Marcus Brothers to do the same thing. The Marcus Brothers are five badass bounty hunters. D accepts the $20 million reward and we are set for the adventure. 

Did I mention that D is a half-human, half-vampire breed? I thought he beat Blade to the punch. However, in my research, I saw that Blade did in fact pre-date D by about 10 years, back in the 70s. 

This movie is a wild ride that takes us to all kinds of places; from a Victorian-style city, to a forest with high-tech vampire devices, to an old west, yet sci-fi town (shades of Trigun, or maybe the other way around), to a decrepit vampire castle that functions as a spaceport to the City of the Night, a vampire sanctuary somewhere in space . To type this all out makes me sound like a crazy person but it all makes sense when you watch it. Think,” Dracula”, meets “Mad Max,” meets “West World,” meets your pick of sci-fi fantasy; it’s all of those but works so well. This movie really has it all, vampires, werewolves, monsters, even a kind of ghost. Plus, it takes a turn into psychological horror near the end, which I’d long forgotten about. 

The final two minutes were a straight-up gut punch that left me wondering about immortality, the choices we make in life and the impact we have on others. 

Overall, “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust” is considered an all-time classic for a reason. From its beautiful art style, to its imaginative setting, to the deep characters, I would recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of horror.