Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Blade II" (2002). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

Screenwriter David S. Goyer returns for "Blade II" (2002), with  director Stephan Nothington not interested in directing a sequel to his stylized "Blade" (1998), as Mexican cult horror director Guillermo del Toro was chosen to direct, with a nod of approval from producers Peter Frankfurt and Wesley Snipes (who plays Blade with such enthusiasm, he practically owns the character).   Del Toro, aligning with Goyer's comic book template for the Blade franchise, went to work in establishing a grittier, yet more comic book stylization for Blade.  Moving on from when the first Blade movie concluded, which was in Eastern Europe, specifically Moscow, Russia, as there is a hint from Nothington's slicker production, that there is Eastern European connection to the Vampire Nation within the lore of Blade.  In its similarity to an international crime organization, with income and investments derived mostly from the West.  Hence Del Toro's sepia toned, grimey and dark underground style production for Blade II, which was mostly filmed in the Czech Republic, with references to vampiric virus strains and drug use as Blade searches for his mentor, weapon maker and mechanic Abraham Whistler, played by the late Kris Kristofferson.  Who was turned into a vampire in the first film, and used as bait to lure out Blade.

With an extended cast of characters, including a group of vampires called the "Blood Pack", who ally themselves with Blade, Whistler and Blade's younger, albeit flaky, assistant "Scud", played by the multi talented Gen X 'icon' Norman Reedus.  The momentum of the movie feels a lot more heavily weighted than its original.  As Del Toro packs in a plethora of CGI, gory FX and a new hybrid, mutated vampire called the "Reapers", who feed off other vampires.  Snipes obviously holds this production together, keeping in character, as his cast of 'other' characters are killed off one by one, all the while the Vampire Nation is double dealing itself once again, in its over ambition of taking over the human race, by extracting Blade's blood, in similarity to the first Blade storyline, as the key that Vampires, more so the Reapers, will become daywalkers.

Del Toro has removed some of the mystique of the Blade story, replacing it with an over-the-top comic book feel, which in turn opens up many plot holes.  Such as; why would the Vampire overload "Eli Damaskinos" create a new and unstable vampire platheon ("Reapers"), and allow it to spread, in an effort to have Blade ally with his "Blood Pack" (they were supposed to hunt Blade) so that Blade can eventually be captured and his blood extracted?  And, why did Blade allow "Scud" to infiltrate his vampire killing operation, if he knew that Scud was a 'familiar' (a human wanting to become a vampire), which essentially got Blade captured and nearly killed, and Whistler to have a severe beating, nearly killing him also.  Only revealing at the end of the movie (spoiler), when Blade blows Scud up, aware that he knew he was a vampire insider, all along.    

Despite the plot holes, "Blade II" is Del Toro's homage to comic books, underground European cinema and his grimy take on horror, repackaged into a Hollywood production.  Setting the mood for his 2004 comic book adaptation of "Hellboy", of a crime fighting catholic converted demon.

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(A.Glass 2025)

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