[MOVIE SUMMARY] "The Insatiable" [2007]
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the movie and/or would like a summary for personal use. Contains
spoilers.
2007
THE INSATIABLE
Cast
Harry Balbo ......... Sean Patrick Flanery
Detective Michael Loper ..... Boyd Kestner
Chet ........................ Josh Hopkins
Javier ....................... Jon Huertas
Ronnie Klein ................... Brad Rowe
Strickland ................. Michael Biehn
Tatiana ................. Charlotte Ayanna
Cindi ....................... Amanda Noret
Comments
I never heard of this movie and caught it on cable, it
having supposedly been released directly to DVD. Granted, it's a
low-budget movie and much of it is filmed in a basement. To other
vampire movie afficionados like me, it might be seen as an
unknown gem. This is not a disguised slasher or porn movie. It is
slightly comedic as well as a psychological drama of how a
vampire and a human connect, sort of in the vein of "Dance of the
Damned" (1988), "Bitten" (2008), or even "Love at First Bite"
(1979).
Summary
On his way home from his drab, run-of-the-mill job, drab
run-of-the-mill Harry Balbo is stopped on the corner by a
homeless man and asked whether he can spare any change so that he
can get something to eat. Harry isn't carrying any change, but he
does stop at a convenience store to buy him a hotdog. When he
gets back to the corner, the man is nowhere to be seen until the
headlights of a passing car show him having his blood drained by
a beautiful girl with fangs. She then rips off his head and leaps
through a window three stories high. Of course, nobody believes
his story--not LAPD Detective Michael Loper, not coworker Chet,
and not even Javier, the other jerk he works with. The only one
who gives some credence to his story is Ronnie Klein, the
convenience store clerk, but Ronnie has problems of his own. His
new chick is so hot for sex that she's draining him of all his
energy.
The next night, when Harry has trouble sleeping, he wanders
out to the crime scene where he sees the chalk outline of the
headless victim drawn on the sidewalk and has a feeling that
Ronnie might be in danger. He climbs up the fire escape outside
Ronnie's apartment and peeks in the bedroom window to see Ronnie
having his blood drained by the same girl that ripped off the
head of the homeless man. Unfortunately, Harry knocks over a
flowerpot, which alerts the girl to his presence. She tears past
him, gashing his cheek on the way. The next day, when Harry hears
that Ronnie has been found dead, he becomes certain that the girl
is a vampire. Searching the internet, he finds a website all
about vampires, sends mail to the owner, who calls himself
Nightstalker, and asks what to do. Nightstalker says that the
only thing he can do is to find the vampire, stake her, and cut
off her head. Harry refuses to do that on grounds that it's
murder.
Turns out that Nightstalker lives in the same apartment
building where Harry lives and works part-time doing maintenance,
as he finds out when Strickland in 3D calls him to fix a stopped
up toilet. Strickland, an L4 quadriplegic, works out of his
apartment tracking vampires. He is currently following the
whereabouts of nine of them, including the one in Los Angeles.
She set up housekeeping in L.A. about two months ago, Strickland
explains and shows Harry the map he has made of her known
killings and the areas where he thinks she might be resting
during the daytime. By searching the tax records for delinquent
payments, he has located 12 possible abandoned buildings she
could be calling home.
Harry decides to try and find the vampire before she finds
him. The next day, he calls in sick. Then, armed with the map and
an armload of wirecutters, crowbars, sledgehammers, stakes, and a
big cleaver, he begins searching through the selected buildings.
In the last one, he comes upon the vampire, asleep on the floor.
Just as he's about to pound the stake through her chest, she
wakes up and pleads with him not to kill her. "I have to eat to
live, just like you," she says pitifully, and Harry can't kill
her. Instead, he comes up with a plan. He steals a load of steel
pipes from his company and builds a cage in the basement of his
apartment building. That night, he goes out looking for her. When
she sees him, she starts chasing him. Harry runs back into his
apartment building, leading her down to the basement and straight
into the cage. Before she realizes what's happening, Harry slams
the cage shut and locks it.
At first, the vampire is enraged. When she calms down, she
introduces herself as Tatiana and tries to sweet talk Harry into
letting her go free. When Harry refuses, she tells him that he
must either feed her or kill her. Harry agrees to feed her. The
next day, he brings home a rabbit. She begrudgingly accepts it
but suggests that Harry bring home an enemy or, at least, someone
he doesn't like. The only person who fits that bill is Javy, the
jerk at work that hounds him relentlessly, but Harry refuses.
When Strickland finds out that Harry has encaged the vampire
rather than killing her, he is livid. He tells Harry the story of
how he was paralyzed at 18 years of age when his army troop came
upon a village in Vietnam where every man, woman, and child had
been wiped out by two vampires...a male and his concubine. It
took all their firepower and then a flamethrower to destroy the
male, but then his girlfriend showed up and single-handedly wiped
out every one of the soldiers in Strickland's unit...with the
exception of Strickland. Him she batted just once, breaking his
spine. He lay there, pretending to be dead, until a reinforcement
troop found him and took him to a hospital after wiping out the
female vamp with napalm. Strickland suggests that Harry kill
Tatiana now before she overpowers him. He recommends that Harry
find himself a new girlfriend. Harry tries to kiss Cindi, a girl
who lives down the hallway from him, when she brings him a dish
of lasagna, but Cindi rebuffs him.
Tatiana is having a hard time living on rabbit blood and
keeps requesting that Harry bring home Javier for her because she
needs human blood. One day, a meter reader comes down in the
basement and finds Tatiana in the cage. She begs him to let her
out, but he offers only to get the police, so she grabs him
through the bars and feeds on him, leaving the body for Harry to
dispose of. Realizing that rabbits aren't going to do it for
Tatiana, Harry goes online and buys her a pint of human blood and
brings it to her on a plate with a red rose, but she tosses it
across the room, refusing to drink it because it's dead blood.
Poor Harry. He's falling in love with Tatiana. She haunts
his dreams and offers to love him back in ways that he can only
imagine. Meanwhile, he's making mistakes at work, sending out the
wrong flanges, and his theft of the steel pipes has caught up
with him. When Chet informs him that Mr Henderson from the main
office is coming to see him and Javy starts taunting Harry about
how he's going to lose his job, Harry has had it. He confesses to
Javy about the insatiable girl he has in his basement and how she
needs more lovers than just him. Javier, who thinks of himself as
a "sexual Tyrannosaurus" is more than happy to meet Tatiana and
eagerly arrives at Harry's apartment decked out with his bag of
love toys. At the last minute, however, Harry has a change of
heart and tries to talk Javy out of going into the basement. Javy
slugs Harry, knocking him out, and grabs the keys.
When Javy sees Tatiana, he is aroused and willing to help
her satisfy her "appetite". She asks him to get the key on the
wall so that he can open the cage. When he comes closer, she
begins caressing his arm (the one not holding the keys) until she
can control herself no longer and bites down. Harry stumbles down
the stairs and tries to pull Javy away from Tatiana, but she rips
off his arm, pulls his entire body into the cage, and proceeds to
drain him dry.
Meanwhile, the body of the meter reader has been uncovered
in a plastic bag in the dump, and Detective Loper and his partner
have been able to identify the fingerprints on the bag as
belonging to Harry Balbo. From the meter reader's meter, they
have gotten the address of the last place he visited...Harry's
apartment building. After the detectives visit Harry's workplace
looking for him, Chet gives Harry a call and warns him that the
cops are on the way. Knowing that it's all over, Harry calls
Strickland to say goodbye. Then he offers himself to Tatiana,
along with the key to her cage. Tatiana is reluctant but finally
agrees to turn him. After the deed is done, Harry goes upstairs,
knocks on Cindi's door, hands her a rose, and asks to be fed. She
invites him in. In the final scene, Strickland waits in his
wheelchair facing the front door, a loaded rifle in his hand.
"Come on, you motherf****rs," he shouts. "I know you're out
there, so come and get me. Come on!"