A micro-budget midnight selection, Summer of Blood seems, apart from several contemporary references, an indie of another era. Written, directed and starring Onut Tukel as a self-obsessed neurotic Turkish sales rep from Brooklyn, he’s the kind who would indeed take no for an answer and admit his product sucks. After a dinner gone wrong with his current girlfriend Jody (Anna Margaret Hollyman), it starts with Erik (Tukel) complaining at the variety of hipster foods available in a local bar (none of which is kale, as these folks are too hip for that). He compares Jody to a powerful businesswoman like Sheryl Sandberg and finally alienates her to the point of break-up. Luckily for Jody, her ex just happens to be across the street. Upset, Erik walks around DUMBO and finds a man bleeding to death and more or less mocks him — after a few failed dates on OKCupid, soon it will be Erik’s time. For the most part, Summer of Blood is the kind of film that you’ll have to approach with caution and be in the mood to just go with it.
Often full of dense laughs with a pace that in passages gets a little indulgent and thus clunky, Summer of Blood comes close to effectively melding multiple genres. Erik reminds me of a thinner, Turkish Zach Galifianakis with a deadpan sense of timing that is in the vein of “cringe” comedy. After another failed date he’s asked out by a creepy psycho-killer type, who would turn him into the Bed-Stuy Edward Cullen. He’s asked, “Do you want to do it?,” and, heartbroken, he responds, “That’s the thing, I don’t think I care, I guess.” Arriving to work the next day in a bloody white shirt, Erik is promptly fired, leaving him free time explores his newfound vampirism, including the mental manipulation of his landlord. Of course, this means he’s now a nightcrawler and cinematographer Jason Banker does his best to photograph this micro-budget movie in the dark.
Summer of Blood perhaps can be read as a sort of allegory to Brooklyn’s ironic gentrification; on the outside, there may be very little between luxury lofts and crappy apartments. The personal politics of the film, though, almost achieve parody. Set in a mode of indie film that seems reminiscent of the Koch-era, Tukel’s film is not without moments of fun and laughs, it’s just that he tries too hard to achieve them. The limits of his budget also show, too, although I personally find it fitting for a film whose horror elements feel like they should have been captured in standard-definition VHS. I admire the DIY spirit, but Summer of Blood feels like a bit of a compromise; the filmmakers should have either spent more time fleshing out the script or fully embraced the pure 80’s B-movie quality. As a film that tries to have it both ways, it’s marginally successful.
Summer of Blood premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and one can see the trailer above.