Blood

Fifteen years ago, Carl Dyson [Adrian Rawlins] was a scientist working on Project Elixir, an attempt to genetically engineer human blood to contain a cure for cancer along with many other known diseases. What they succeeded in doing was to create a vampire whose blood contained a powerful and highly-addictive narcotic. Their creation, a young girl they called Lix, is now being held by a group of addicts who drain Lix [Lee Blakemore] of blood to get high and to sell to other addicts. In return, they must feed her with nine pints of blood for every pint of blood they remove from her. In a heroic attempt, Carl and his friend Doug [Phil Cornwell] rescue Lix, and Carl takes her home to live with him, wife Heather [Elizabeth Marmur], and young son Jack [Nicolas Harvey]. Carl can't help but wonder what drinking Lix's blood would be like. Many years ago, Doug tried it and remembers the experience as being one where everyone around him was kind and beautiful and all in the world was right, just like being on morphine or heroin. One day, when Lix is helping Carl prepare dinner, she inadvertently cuts herself. Carl fetches a bandage but can't resist the opportunity to sample a drop of her blood. The effect is instantaneous and heady. In return, Carl lets Lix prick him for nine drops of his blood. Although Heather tries to make Lix feel like part of the family, taking her shopping, buying clothes, showing her how to use makeup, etc., she begins feeling very stressed by the bottles of blood being stored in the refrigerator, blood that Lix requires. What would happen, Heather wonders, if Lix was ever injured and Carl wasn't around to supply blood for her? (Carl brings it home from the laboratory.) Carl doesn't have an answer, and this dilemma is beginning to erode his relationship with Heather. Not to mention that Carl is beginning to fall in love with Lix. (Or is it her blood that he craves?) Carl thinks that he may be able to engineer a cure for Lix's condition, allowing her to lead a normal life. He starts taking blood from Lix, on the pretext that he is using himself as a guinea pig and needs Lix's blood for his experiments as well as for a book he's going to write on the subject. One day, as he is sucking blood from Lix's finger, Heather happens in on them. Another day, Jack sees his dad drink a test-tube full of Lix's blood, which Carl explains away as "medicine." It's when Heather discovers Jack trying some of Carl's "medicine" that it begins to fall apart for Carl. First, Heather packs up and moves herself and Jack away from Carl. Then, Carl tries to give a professional lecture but can do little more than ramble and cry at the podium. He lays in a large supply of blood for Lix then quits working. He begins making love to Lix, during which he cuts her with a razor in order to drink her blood. He begins losing track of time. The house is a mess. He's drinking more and more of her blood and is stoned much of the time. When the blood supply runs out and Carl is too stoned to get more, Lix is forced to kill two people in order to drink their blood. When news of the "vampire killings" hit the newspaper, Doug points out that the addicts from whom they rescued Lix will probably read the article, figure out where Lix is, and come looking for her. Doug offers to stay overnight, just in case. Sure enough, that night the three addicts break into the house looking for Lix. Lix manages to kill all three addicts, but Doug also gets killed in the process. Carl and Lix bury the bodies under the cellar, first hanging them upside down and draining out their blood. Carl continues to drink from Lix during their love-making. One night, he drinks even more than usual. The next morning, Lix is dead. There's nothing more Carl can do except to phone the police. [Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]