Blaine Thurier was the longtime keyboardist of the New Pornographers, but he quietly exited the group earlier this year, and now he's directed a film that's screening this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Kicking Blood was co-written by Thurier with Leonard Farlinger. It stars Alanna Bale as a vampire who is bored with eternal life and tries to quit human blood. A synopsis describes the film like this:
Fusing the grittiness of George Romero's Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon's early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier's Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier's undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks.
Watch a clip from Kicking Blood below. Get details about TIFF screenings over at the festival's website. It doesn't seem to have a date for a wide release, but it has been picked up by levelFILM for Canadian distribution. The film previously screened at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Thurier has directed several films and music videos over the years. His debut feature, 2000's Low Self-Esteem Girl, won the Best Narrative Feature award at South by Southwest.
Thurier was a longtime member of the New Pornographers, having played on all of their albums from 2000's Mass Romantic to 2019's In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. His name was absent from the band's recent tour announcement, and his bio on the film project Greetings from Isolation lists him as a "former" member of the group.
Kicking Blood was co-written by Thurier with Leonard Farlinger. It stars Alanna Bale as a vampire who is bored with eternal life and tries to quit human blood. A synopsis describes the film like this:
Fusing the grittiness of George Romero's Martin with the sly theatricality of Stuart Gordon's early films (Re-Animator, From Beyond), Blaine Thurier's Kicking Blood reimagines vampire mythology by transplanting it to the bohemian world Thurier has satirized since he began making films. Instead of the usual desiccated, tormented aristocrats with impossibly innocent victims, Thurier's undead are hipster scavengers and swingers, their victims luckless hangers-on and drunks.
Watch a clip from Kicking Blood below. Get details about TIFF screenings over at the festival's website. It doesn't seem to have a date for a wide release, but it has been picked up by levelFILM for Canadian distribution. The film previously screened at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival.
Thurier has directed several films and music videos over the years. His debut feature, 2000's Low Self-Esteem Girl, won the Best Narrative Feature award at South by Southwest.
Thurier was a longtime member of the New Pornographers, having played on all of their albums from 2000's Mass Romantic to 2019's In the Morse Code of Brake Lights. His name was absent from the band's recent tour announcement, and his bio on the film project Greetings from Isolation lists him as a "former" member of the group.
