My textual analysis of Blade (1998)

Within the film Blade it was particularly effective when the character saw something before the audience. We are first presented with this when the Blond young man is walking through what appears to be a butcher (following the red headed girl). His facial expressions portray him to be excited yet confused; he is looking around interested however his face suddenly focuses on something which is off camera. The audience are left on edge until the camera pans round to reveal what he was looking at; bodies hanging from hooks in bags - not the typical butchers. Up until now the audience has been given no reason to question the events however things start to get weird.

The location of the club itself could be seen as an exotic location, it is well hidden making it seem like part of a secret executive club. In order for the woman to get passed the bouncer she must speak what sounds like Russian. At this point the blond boy is even more confused however as the girl kisses him he soon forgets and carries on, confirming the stereotype. The opening includes social fears such as foreigners being vampires, they are immortal and so in this extract appear to have no limits which is why there is promiscuity occurring as well as lesbian activity. Vampires are also well known for being faster than the average human, we ae presented with numerous jump cuts and other fast paced editing to reveal this. At this point it is not confirmed that they are vampires as we have not been shown the iconic fangs.

A mid-shot of the blond boy reveals a drop of blood fall on him, with confusion he tastes it as behind him we see all the party-goers raising their arms in the air as if waiting for something. This makes the audience feel tense as you are unaware of what is about to happen. We then see a long shot of the DJ as he announces something. At this point the lighting reveals the words on the poster behind him ‘Bloodbath’ and before you can guess what is about to occur next you see a close up of the sprinklers pour blood all over the club. The blond boy is in hell as he looks around at all the vampires as they finally reveal the iconic fangs.  This scene is interrupted by the character crawling into some clean, black boots. The fact they are clean suggests this character has only just arrived. We then see a long shot where we can make out the character through peoples limbs. They all start to move away revealing a superior character dressed in black, our initial thoughts as an audience is that he is the protagonist. A man who we frequently are shown being involved in promiscuity has now stopped and fled the scene. This reveals how powerful this character is because only he has been able to bring this party to an end.