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'Bloodsucking' a weak attempt at a genre mashup

The low-budget horror comedy “Bloodsucking Bastards” combines Peter Jackson's grossly gory “Dead Alive” with Mike Judge's comedy “Office Space” — minus clever banter, interesting characters, deft direction and brisk pacing.

George Romero would certainly laud director Brian James O'Connell (working from a screenplay by the comedy troupe Dr. God and Ryan Mitts) for supplying the movie with a strong dose of political satire.

We discover that the perfect workers for American companies aren't kids in Third World countries, but vampires. They never take sick days. Seem to work together well. Don't mind night shifts. Don't need restroom breaks. (OK, I made that last one up. but it might be true.)

Fran Kranz stars as Evan, a low-rung employee working in a soul-deprived sales office where the only good thing is Amanda (Emma Fitzpatrick), his girlfriend and fellow employee.

Things start to go really bad (except for the guy getting mutilated in the toilet stall and a few other mishaps) when the boss (Joel Murray) gives Evan's sales manager promotion to an old college rival, Max (Pedro Pascal), who really sinks his teeth into the job.

Fans of gory-fied movies will not be disappointed by the crimson geysers to be witnessed late in the movie when the narrative pace finally climbs above “comatose” and the blood bags outnumber the sentences in the screenplay.

“Bloodsucking Bastards” opens at the South Barrington 30 and Facets Multimedia, Chicago. Not rated, contains extreme violence and adult language. 87 minutes. ★ ½

• Dann Gire's Reel Life column runs Friday in Time out!

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