Blood, Booze, and Debauchery: A Night at the ‘Blade’ Blood Rave with The Crystal Method

By Matthew Ismael Ruiz

Oct. 12, 2015

1998’s Blade predates the current comic book movie craze by a couple of years. The R-rated adaptation of the vampire-hunting comic set the high-water mark for the many vampire-related projects that would follow in the next two decades. The opening scene — in which Traci Lords leads an unsuspecting victim to an underground vampire rave where blood rains from the fire sprinklers — has become iconic, and gave new life to New Order’s “Confusion.”

So on Friday, October 9, during this year’s edition of New York Comic Con, BBQ Films restaged the ’90s artifact, screening the film and using costumed characters to bring scenes to life on stage at Manhattan’s Terminal 5. But unlike the movie, where the daywalking vampire Blade murders scores of his own kind at the rave, this party was all about the celebration of naughty vampires, with a custom fang-maker on site, various photo ops from the film, and countless cosplayers embracing the dark side. A 1998 time capsule, the event was headlined by ’90s rave stalwarts The Crystal Method, who provided the soundtrack for the JNCO jeans-wearing, glow stick-twirling crowd, supported by New York’s own Pictureplane. There were also a ton of nerds making out, before, during, and after attendees were showered with synthetic blood.

Click through for photos of the hemoglobin hedonism from our photographer Chona Kasinger.