Blood Creek (2009) Movie Review
Written By: YN
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: Joel Schumacher
Producers: Paul Brooks, Tom Lassally and Robyn Meisinger
Writer: David Kajganich
Date Released: September 18, 2009
Cast:
Dominic Purcell as Victor Alan Marshall
Henry Cavill as Evan Marshall
Michael Fassbender as Richard Wirth
Emma Booth as Liese
Rainer Winkelvoss as Otto
Shea Whigham as Luke
Rating = 2/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
In 1936, a family welcomes German professor, Richard Wirth, into their home only to find out that he hides terrible secrets behind his charming personality. Fast forward to 2007, Evan Marshall wakes up to find his missing brother, Victor, is back and is now on a crusade for vengeance. He turns to Evan for help, and together, they go back to where Victor was imprisoned and tortured. But their plans backfire when they accidentally unleash an evil that has been locked up there for decades. And now, it is out for blood.
Gore Factor
This film has a blood-drinking Nazi occultist with a penchant for killing and resurrecting animals and humans to do his biddings. Gore and blood are inevitable. In fact, the blood flows abundantly in here. However, it isn’t as violent and explicit as one would expect for a story about satanic rituals. The most explicit it gets is when Richard Wirth, the blood-drinking Nazi occultist, pierces his forehead open to make space for his third eye. Aside from that, the violence only extends to stabbing and shooting people (and animals) in the guts. Likewise, its clunky special effects tend to ruin the impact of the bloodbath, thus failing to bring out the reaction it intends to provoke.
The Grave Review
Blood Creek (2009) is a movie that has a lot of potential. Its cast is studded with talented, well-known actors, and the story is intriguing enough to catch your attention at first. However, it falls short in sustaining it. This is mostly because of the tacky special effects that toes the line of ridiculous most of the time, and the flimsily laid out foundation for the plot. Nonetheless, it still stays true to the horror genre by providing a dark, thrilling, and bloody watch.
At first glance the film has an interesting plot since it uses Hitler’s fascination for the occult as its premise. This quickly gets lost in all the blood and gore due to the story’s pacing–or lack thereof. Everything in the film happens so fast that the big reveals and horrifying battle sequence quickly lose their impact. Most of the time, you just find yourself getting dragged along by the plot without really understanding why the characters are doing this or that. In fact, these characters aren’t really thinking things through. An example is when the supposed “missing brother” suddenly returns in the middle of the night only to drag Evan along on a mission for revenge on his captors. First off, a sane person who has just escaped from his kidnappers would probably ask his brother to call the authorities first instead of marching right back. But in this case, the plot overrules logic.
Likewise, the movie has the tendency to tell instead of show. This makes the plot seem shallow and the characters flat. It builds very little tension to pave the way for the bloody face off with the villain because you’re still waiting for the movie to tell you what exactly is going on. Because aside from their words, you have nothing to go on with except for a couple of blatant hints here or there. This also makes it difficult for you to be invested on the brothers’ fate because it never really shows you who they are and why you should care for them in the first place.
To top it all off, the special effects in here can sometimes ruin the mood. Nothing beats seeing a badly CGI horse smashing through the window to drag a man out of a house with only his teeth. Or seeing a man shed his computerized skin off his face. If you’re not cringing from all those blood, you would probably cringe to these.
In the end, it is the acting that makes the entire film bearable to watch. Starring Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender, it has no shortage of great actors. In fact, their performance is more convincing than the flaky CGIs going on in the film. On another note, if you’re just looking for mindless gore and old-fashioned bloodbath, then this film will not disappoint.
With these foregoing reasons, Grave Reviews gives Blood Creek (2009) two graves out of five graves.
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