Because I had forgotten about gay icon Alan Ball’s bayou vampire saga “Tru Blood,” I naturally assumed New Sensations’ porn parody “Tru” was about Robert Morse’s bravura performance as gay icon Truman Capote. It is a reasonable mistake when taking into account that I am not a 14-year-old girl with black fingernail polish.
Studio: New Sensations
Director: Lee Roy Myers, from a script by Ashlynn Brooke
Starring: Ashlynn Brooke, James Deen, Misty Stone, Bill Bailey, Vanessa Naughty, Levi Cash, Gracie Glam, Evan Stone, Shay Sights, Ralph Long
I watched the premiere episode of HBO’s “Tru Blood” and found it too overwrought and campy, so I stopped watching. But, having had a good experience with Zero Tolerance’s “Jersey Shore” parody, based on a show I never watched, I had a feeling that the talented team at New Sensations could also produce a porn adaptation that would stand on its own without requiring the viewer to be familiar with the original.
And they have. The ancient (but, because vampires are immortal, well-kept and hot) and evil bloodsucktress Maryann (Vanessa Naughty) is hunting for virginal (but, because she’s Ashlynn Brooke, hot) Sookie in the latter’s sleepy Louisiana town in which, for purposes of the story, the following things are understood:
- It is a time when vampires are cool but oppressed minorities, like transsexuals or the Irish, and their blood, known on the market as “V,” is an aphrodisiac coveted by mortals
- (I can already tell you that “Tru” the porn parody is way better than “V” the shitty remake of the 80’s alien miniseries)
- Human Sookie can read minds
- Vampire-curious mortals, like Sookie, are known derisively as “fangbangers” by racists
“Tru” is an example of how something that is insulting to the intelligence in an incarnation without hardcore sex (i.e. the original) is absolutely perfect for porn. The soap opera setting seems just porn’s speed, with the non-sex scenes dripping with melodrama (and blood).
Lafayette (in a nonverbal and sanguine cameo by Shane Diesel), the brother of Tara (Misty Stone), has had his heart ripped out. Sookie the mindreader goes to investigate. Jason (Levi Cash), the brother of Sookie, goes to comfort Tara. Afterward they are scolded by Sookie, who suggests their coupling perhaps comes too soon in the wake of Lafayette’s evisceration. But Levi reveals that his V addiction (recounted in a stunning flashback with Gracie Glam) may have led to vampire leader Eric’s (Bill Bailey) seeking vengeance against V dealer Lafayette.
But Eric didn’t kill Lafayette – someone else did. OMG.
If this sounds convoluted to you, remember that the parody is faithful to the spirit of the original, which reads like it was written as the MySpace blog of an overweight teen.
“Tru” was shot with two Red One cameras, twice the hardware of my favorite movie of last year, “The Sex Files.” And it looks gorgeous. The crew does not need to get too creative with the cameras, considering that Brooke looks absolutely beautiful and Naughty, Glam, and Stone are all displayed at their most alluring.And the fellas are all hunky.
So, as something aimed squarely at a couples’ market, “Tru” should be a hit on both sides of the couch, though James Deen suffers from an unfortunate wig.
Even as my problems with the original become pluses in the porn version, I was nevertheless confused at points: when flashbacks included material that the person flashing back couldn’t have known, during an awkward chase sequence, and when Evan Stone turned into a dog.
All porn parodies are not surefire hits, and I don’t think every show should be made into a porn parody (that is why I will fight for the suppression of Robert Morse’s “In Cold Tru Blood”), but “Tru” as a porno makes so much more sense to me, and it looks great.
Buy “Tru: An XXX Parody” here
See my interview with Ashlynn Brooke below:
Previously on Porn Valley Observed: “Tru Blood”y well right (on the set)“Vampire Sex Diaries” – Who knew they could write?; Sucking cocks in Hell – porn stars and their favorite horror movies; “Listen up, douche-ass”;
See also: New Sensations
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