Blood Creek (2009)


REVIEWER RATING: 
7/10


Originally titled Town Creek , then changed to simply Creek, it was given a final last minute title change to Blood Creek before it crept into theaters over the weekend. Contractually obligated, Lionsgate decided to give this film a very limited theatrical release in only the dollar theater markets. A fate similar to last year's Midnight Meat Train. The only difference this time 'round is the fact that no one really discovered that Blood Creek was even coming out until the day it actually came out! On top of that, there has been absolutely no publicity for the film. There's not even a proper poster available and plot details were fairly scarce.

I was lucky enough to stumble upon the movie’s release at my local dollar theater, so I obviously jumped at the opportunity to check it out. So, are millions of genre fans missing out on Blood Creek due to its poor theatrical release? Eh, yes and no. It is a good movie to an extent for us horror fans, but it also falls victim to predictability and some minor pacing issues in the beginning. Despite that, it still proved to be a fun and interesting watch, and well worth the dollar I spent to catch the showing.

The film opens up in the 1930's and in black and white, where we follow a poor German family as they welcome a Nazi scholar into their home. Unbeknownst to them, he's actually part of a secret Nazi occult experiment, and he needs the family and a mystical runestone that's hidden somewhere on their farm to perform his blood rituals in hopes of granting eternal life.

Fast-forward to present day, where we follow a man who works as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).  The man's older brother went missing a couple years back during a fishing trip and hasn't been seen again. That is, until his brother mysteriously shows up one night asking for his help. The two gather a couple days worth of supplies and all the guns and ammunition they can carry, as they set out to the area where his missing bro has been held up all this time.

They reach a small farm, occupied by a seemingly harmless family, where they discover that they're only pawns in a much larger design, and it's only a matter of time before "he" comes out from his cellar to wreck havoc on the brothers and the family.

This marks director Joel Schumacher's official return to the genre after The Lost Boys in 1987 and Flatliners from the early 90's. It's not an entirely bad return, in my opinion. It's just good to finally see a horror flick that isn't a remake or cut and slapped with a PG-13 rating on it. However, I honestly don't think this movie would've garnered a lot of box office numbers had it been given the appropriate theatrical release anyway.

The movie has a slow-paced, but interesting start and doesn't pick up until the brothers reach the farm around 30-or-so minutes in. The flick really kicks into gear when the undead Nazi occultist makes his appearance and starts raising the dead and going after the family. Yes, he can raise recently deceased victims, from humans to animals, which makes for some interesting situations. I especially liked the scene involving an undead horse busting up the family's kitchen. Damn thing just wouldn't die! Luckily for the family they covered all their windows and doors with some sort of binding spell that keep the pesky undead Nazi away.

There's also a pretty good amount of blood and a couple somewhat gory deaths thrown in for good measure. The makeup and FX work was pretty well done, except for a few lackluster CGI scenes. On the more negative side of things, the backstory on the brothers could've used a little more work and the story was a little clichéd and predictable. Then again, I didn't really care much about how predictable it was since much of the genre is nothing but predictability anyway so *shrugs*.

Although the film isn't the most original and suffers from some pacing and predictability issues, I still enjoyed watching it from start. There's a good amount of the red stuff and the undead Nazi occultist was a pretty badass villain. We're also given a nice minor zombie treat when he uses his powers to raise the dead. Give this flick a check if you can.
OVERALL: 
Although the film isn't the most original and suffers from some pacing and predictability issues, I still enjoyed watching it from start. There's a good amount of the red stuff and the undead Nazi occultist was a pretty badass villain. We're also given a nice minor zombie treat when he uses his powers to raise the dead. Give this flick a check if you can.


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