There are good movies, bad movies, and movies that are so bad you can’t help but fall in love with them. While 1998’s Razor Blade Smile may not fit comfortably into the latter category, it comes pretty damn close, because the vampire flick is so reprehensible that you find yourself left with no other option but to admire the passion on display.
Amateurish in every sense of the word, the production values are non-existent, the acting is terrible, the camerawork is borderline offensive, but it’s all so unapologetic in its awfulness that it kind of works. Not that a zero percent Rotten Tomatoes score would lead you to that conclusion, but Razor Blade Smile is the type of film you have to watch for yourself to understand why it holds a special place in the hearts of many.
150 years on from being turned into a vampire, Eileen Daly’s Lilith Silver works as a hired assassin tasked with exterminating the Illuminati, and the leader of the secretive cult just so happens to be the very same person who turned her into a member of the bloodsucking undead a century and a half previously.
So far, so formulaic, but the final scene is a genuinely excellent rug-pull. We won’t spoil it for any of the oblivious gorehounds out there, but it re-contextualizes the entire narrative and puts a completely fresh spin on the vampire-hunting subgenre that knocks you for six considering how unrelentingly terrible everything had been up until that point.
Over a quarter of a century later, and Redditors remain united in agreement that no matter how much Razor Blade Smile sucks – and it’s a lot – the grand and completely unexpected finale atones for the many sins committed throughout its 102-minute existence.
Published: Mar 12, 2023 01:23 pm