Donna Wilkes

In this thriller Wilkes doesn't have much screen time until the last third. She's playing a supporting role as Klaus Kinski's daughter which becomes more prominent only near the movie's end.

A highlight of the movie is her exotic appearence in the dinner sequence where, thanks to the makeup and dress her character has chosen to wear, she has a totally different look than in the rest of the movie. This, along with her different looks in Angel, suggest that she has a naturally pretty face that is quite neutral, which makeup artists must like to work with because its neutrality allows for the creation of such a wide range of looks.

The handling of this movie's ending is interesting to compare with Angel's. In Angel it will be Kit that dispatches the killer because Angel would lose the vulnerability that holds the audience sympathetic to her, but here Wilkes' character does the deed; although we have no clue if her actions are actually fatal. A philosophical view of this is that her character is allowed to kill to protect her father in this movie, but not to protect herself in Angel.

This sort of low-budget movie is all too easy to make unwatchable but for the most part they get it right. Basically there aren't any boring sequences and the photography is clear and well-lit most of the time.

Wilkes looks comfortable with the role but hasn't yet developed the acting range or skills that she would show just two years later with Angel. In particular her line delivery doesn't yet sound completely professional; at times it's a slightly laconic delivery with a touch of breathlessness to it.

This movie ends with a wacky twist that it would have been better without. All too often it seems that a writer or director comes up with what he thinks is a great idea to shock the audience while ending the movie but either can't see that it doesn't work or doesn't have the strength of will to cut it mercilessly. This movie already came to a satisfactory conclusion, we didn't need the twisty bit.

Possible trivia: It's not clear when Blood Song was shot versus being released. Was it in the can for a year or two? It sort of feels like it in some unknown way.

It's an even bet that whoever cast Angel saw Wilkes in this TV appearance. The pigtail look is here, predating Angel by almost two years.

Wilkes has more screen time in the first episode since her character is the one who sets in motion a major series plot point.

Her line delivery skills have grown, although it sometimes sounds like she's trying to force her lines to have the vocal mannerisms of someone the age of her character but her voice doesn't have the high range to pull it off. Age the schoolgirl character from Father Murphy a few years for Angel and Wilkes doesn't have to force anything at all. For all but a few lines her delivery in Angel would sound natural.

Wilkes has plenty of screen time in this TV appearance and her performance convinced me that she can play a secondary lead role quite well. The breathless quality to her line delivery is back sometimes, but if she can control that then she can deliver dialogue well and do so with quite a unique voice. A good example of this is the scene where Wilkes' character learns of the fate of Benny, her father-figure; her lines here are delivered in a smoothly flowing style that did not sound like any other actress' delivery. She has a unique voice when she wants to use it, especially when a scene has enough lines for her to deliver that she gets some momentum going.

This show was probably shot a year after Angel, with a lot of location shooting (all of it maybe?) in San Francisco. Wilkes' character makes a reference to Bruce Springsteen albums; although we don't see an album cover this might be inspired by the mid-1984 success of Born in the USA. Wilkes already showed range with Angel but proves it again here as she plays her character differently then any of her prior roles, at least of those that this author has seen.

The series wasn't a success, only lasting 13 episodes per the IMDB, but this episode is a reasonably entertaining TV detective thriller that's worth a watch if one enjoys 80's detective shows, particularly if one's in the mood for an 80's TV flashback.

Trivia: Look closely and you'll see that in a few scenes Wilkes wears the same sweater that she did in Angel, the one she's wearing in the above photo. It's probably standard procedure for low-budget movies to cut costs by having the cast members wear their own clothes when possible; in fact, press materials for Angel do mention that authenticity was gained by having extras in the boulevard scenes supply their own wardrobe. It's not too hard to imagine this applying to the actors as well.

More trivia: The Bruce Springsteen albums sequence was shot on Guerrera St north of 22nd St in San Francisco. Identifying the Angel filming locations made me want to find this one too, and thanks to the clues on screen it was easy to spot via Google Maps.

While Wilkes does have lots of screen time in the first third of the movie, much of it is spent in dialogue with Linda Blair or running from the bad guys, neither of which gives her much of an opportunity to show further development in acting skill like she did with her role in Angel. Her dialogue scenes here have a naturalness to the line delivery, like the delivery she used in Angel, so I had expectations of seeing a performance of that caliber but ultimately it was not to be. That's not her fault, she played the part well but it was a supporting role in a movie that didn't give her much to do, and I was looking for more after seeing how well she did with Angel.

The movie is at least an interesting variation of the hidden monster in the family takes revenge plot but the direction and particularly the editing let down the storytelling a few times when there are action sequences. It seems that dialogue is the director and the editor's area of expertise.

My biggest knock against this movie is the many many twists that are thrown at the audience. For the record, I saw the version with the Frankenstein and Wolfman ending as the final twist. There are so many twists that when the movie ended I was so annoyed I didn't really care about the story anymore. I think there is a good story in there but the execution is flawed; if any movie should be remade it's this one.