A BUCKET OF BLOOD (1995) ***

A Bucket of Blood is a remake of the 1959 cult classic starring Dick Miller.  It was made as part of the Showtime series Roger Corman Presents and it sticks close to the original.  Only now, since it’s on Showtime, they can include a scene involving a violinist performance artist doing a striptease.

Anthony Michael Hall steps into the Walter Paisley role.  He’s a busboy with dreams of artistic stardom who only works in a beatnik club to be around the artists he admires.  One night he accidentally kills a cat.  With no way to get rid of the carcass, he wraps it plaster and passes it off as “art”.  He quickly becomes an overnight sensation, but what will he do for an encore?

It may seem odd nowadays to remake A Bucket of Blood so closely.  However, it makes sense when you realize that in the early ‘90s, there was a mini-resurgence of spoken word poetry and pseudo-beatnik culture.  (Remember all those Gap ads?)  It also works as a skewering of the pretentious art world at the time.  John Waters later did something similar with Pecker, although that film was much more saccharine in its approach.

Speaking of which, Waters regular Mink Stole also appears as a rich woman married to Paul Bartel.  In fact, the whole supporting cast is gangbusters.  Justine Bateman is having fun doing a snooty accent as the object of Walter’s affection.  We also have David Cross and Will Ferrell popping up in small roles a few years before finding fame.  It’s Shadoe Stevens who steals the movie as the beat poet guru who endlessly pontificates about God knows what.   

I didn’t think anyone could replace Miller as Walter, seeing as it’s his signature role.   I have to admit, Hall makes the role his own.  He does a fine job as the lowly busboy yearning for social and artistic acceptance and manages to be intimidating once he turns into a murderer. 

A Bucket of Blood is a nearly scene-for-scene remake that retains the black humor that made the original such a classic.  The big difference of course, is the gratuitous nudity, which is always appreciated.  I can’t say it was entirely warranted, nor is it by any means essential, but it’s one of the best films in the Roger Corman Presents line-up.

AKA:  The Death Artist.  AKA:  Bloody Secret.  AKA:  Walter.  AKA:  Dark Secrets.