Blood Creek (2009/aka Town Creek/Lionsgate
DVD)
Picture: C Sound: C Extras: C- Feature: C+
What do
you get when you cross Nazis, the occult, undead zombie horses and West
Virginia? Simply, you get one of the
most original horror films in recent memory.
In times
like these, when originality is the least of filmmakers worries (especially in
the horror genre), Blood Creek deserves more
attention. I'm honestly surprised there
haven't been more movies revolving around Hitler's obsession with the Occult,
like this. Blood Creek's
premise sets it apart from any other in the genre. Sure, there are films such as Zombie
Lake and Raiders of the Lost Ark where
Hitler's focus on the occult are mentioned, but none so much as Blood
Creek. That's not saying this
film is an under-the-radar masterpiece, but it is a fun flick to watch if
you're bored.
It seems
as though the once A-list director, Joel Schumacher, would receive more
attention for a movie as imaginative as this, but Lionsgate has swept this horror
movie under the cover with no attention just as they did with Midnight
Meat Train among many others. The Saw
films seem to be the only films in this genre they really care about marketing.
But I digress.
The film
opens with a beautifully shot black and white opening sequence taking place in
West Virginia during 1936. A German
family residing on a farm gets a visitor in the form of a Nazi “historian”
named Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds). From this point on, the film takes a frenetic
pace where the character development isn't great. As a matter of fact, it's barely present at
all.
The story
switches to present day (West Virginia), where EMT Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill,
The
Tudors) is reacquainted with his long-lost brother Victor (Dominic
Purcell, Prison Break). Victor
takes him on a mission to exact revenge on the family who had tortured him for
the past two years. When they arrive,
and take over the household of the ageless German family, all hell breaks loose
and Wirth begins the final stage of his plan by drinking human blood and
transforming into an unstoppable monster.
This is
your typical house siege film, where the blood-sucking super-Nazi monster
reanimates any dead creature into hell-beasts, including a hilarious scene
where a horse is reanimated only to storm into the house stomping on any fool
caught under his hoof. All the while
getting pumped full of buckshot.
Fassbender
as the monster looks like a Cenobite who ended up on a West Virginia farm. His make-up is excellent and there is no
shortage of blood in this movie, as Schumacher tries his hardest with gross-out
gore.
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image and Dolby Digital sound are
disappointing and not as good as expected, while the only extra on the disc is
the director's commentary with Schumacher. Even though it takes him around halfway
through to begin talking about the film, the first half is full of Nazi trivia
which makes it seem as though you're watching a History Channel special. It's full of useful information for people who
enjoy that type of thing.
Due to
the non-existent marketing campaign, this film will probably be looked over by
many who notice it on the shelves. It
shouldn't be though. As one of the few
original movies these days, it deserves the attention.
- Jake Kocan
