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MAXX BLOODD: VAMPIRE SPY
Written, Produced, and Directed by Rock Savage
Maxx Blood - Rock Savage
Rex Jones - Eric Koger
Crackhead - Frank VassalloRock Savage has been making underground cinema since most of today's devotees were in diapers. He's part of a generation that grew up with Super 8 as the home movie format of choice. 22 years strong, he's still cranking them out for his fans in and around Washington, D.C.
Before you see any of Rock's work, you have to understand that Rock himself is just a character. He's a creation meant to embody all the tough-guy actors from classic 60's pulp cinema. Think James Colburn in the Flint movies, only a bit shorter and with cooler hair.
From there, Rock places himself in hard-boiled pulp novel scenarios and lives the life the rest of us only read about.
This time out, Rock is Maxx Bloodd, a vampire detective who really doesn't care for the democrats all that much. There's a cocain-sniffing mayor making a mess of things and a "deucsh" President sitting in the White House a few blocks away. It's Maxx's belief that all the lenient, liberal laws are the reason that crime is as bad as it is. If the lawmakers are going to be sissies, then it's Maxx's job to kick a little crime lord ass.
Yes, Rock is a brother to the Republican cause. God bless him!
Having met Rock, I'm not sure if that's just part of the character, or a reflection of the creator underneath. For what it's worth, it would be more fun if it was just part of the character; an extension of the joke. There's an Andy Kaufman-like genius in the thought of a created-persona that's so three dimensional that audiences can't tell the character from the creator, and the two are as opposite as night and day in every single way. Add to that the brilliance of a third character that the persona is portraying and all it becomes very Tony Clifton.
From there, Rock brings his friends on board, many of which are also playing characters-within-characters. Like Rock, it's apparent they're having fun playing these characters that have evolved over the last 22 years. At the same time, it gives everyone a chance to immortalize part of their childhood.
Content wise, MAXX BLOODD: VAMPIRE SPY is similar in style and tone to other Rock Savage productions. The humor is sexist, the language is vile, and the bad guys are all stereotypes. But it's the familiarity of Rock's retro-pulp novel world that makes it so enjoyable. Rock's movies harken back to a day when writers like John D. McDonald and Ian Fleming lined airport dime racks. Sure, those novels were trashy, but damn if they weren't fun! Thank goodness people like Rock Savage won't let them die.