Bloodlock (2008) – DVD Movie Reviews

By The Vocabulariast on Thursday, 1st July 2010

Click here to buy now!

You would think a vampire flick would be a good thing for a low-budget film maker to experiment with. However, over the years I’ve seen so many low-budget vampire flicks that sucked that I have begun to dread watching any of them. Thankfully, Director William Victor Schotten is a cut above most of the low-rent indie directors out there. He proved this with his first effort, the flawed, but entertaining, indie zombie flick Dead Life. Now Schotten is taking on the vampire genre with his indie ethos in one hand and his penchant for gore in the other.

The film tells the tale of a chick and her husband that move into a new house. The chick’s sister also moves in with them, and unbeknownst to her, her husband and her sister are having an affair… and planning to kill her ass. Anyway, everyone keeps up a sense of twisted normalcy, until the chick notices a weird door in the basement. The door is locked and for some reason the chick is fascinated by it. Then some crazy ass old fuckers stop by and hold the sisters hostage while they break open the door, which really shouldn’t be that big of a problem considering that the hinges are on the outside of the door. Just as they finish needlessly breaking the lock on the door, the chick’s husband shows up and gets busy with his handgun. But, as he is about to snuff out his own wife, the door opens and carnage ensues. The wife barely escapes from the clutches of a vampire who looks like he might be a ‘90s club kid, and she becomes obsessed with tracking down and killing the murderous vampire. It’s a fairly solid story which moves pretty nicely.

Director William Victor Schotten’s flick is a solid effort through and through. The picture quality is a little low-budget and there are some moments of pixilation which really ruin the quality of the film, but Schotten makes up for that with solid angles, some nice camera movement, and a focus on excellence as far as gore goes. The pacing is excellent, and unlike most indie directors, Schotten focuses on telling an actual story, which is pretty well-written. Most of the film’s problems come from issues of money, and you can tell that with some extra scratch, Schotten is capable of making some damn entertaining movies. The only real problem with the story is that the end feels kind of forced and tacked on as if they didn’t quite know how to end the film. Maybe they were just trying to get it to that 90 minute mark, but the end really doesn’t work for the film.

The cast is surprisingly good for a movie of this price range. Ashley Gallo has a nice librarian thing going on as Christine, the wife in the film. Gallo is excellent as our fearless heroine. Domanic Koulianos is also solid as Barry, Christine’s husband. He dies off way too soon in my opinion, especially since he is replaced by Gregg Biamonte as Christine’s new love interest. Biamonte is a pretty bad actor, and he lacks charisma to the point, that you’ll wish Christine’s evil husband was back in the picture. The rest of the cast is fairly low-rent, but in these types of movies, you should just count yourself lucky that the lead is solid.

The film really shines where it counts… in the gore department. I’m so happy that these vampires aren’t the “drool on a puddle of corn syrup” variety. These vampires will take a chunk out of your ass and then rip your head off. Then they’ll throw it at your friend’s car as they try and drive away. The look of the vampires is alright with some gnarly looking mouthpieces that make them look like they’re from West Virginia. The drawn on red and blue veins of the vampires is somewhat cheesy, but the quality of the kills more than makes up for it.

This movie isn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but it is put together well enough to make it a viable watch. I can count on one finger the amount of low-budget vampire flicks I’ve actually enjoyed, and this is one of them.

Final Synopsis: This movie is flawed, but solid. It’s got some good kills and tells a solid story. Give it a rent if you can find it, and you’re an indie horror enthusiasts

Points Lost: -1 for some bad acting from supporting characters, -1 for low-grade picture quality and pixilation, -1 for the ending, -1 for the hokey look of the main vampire

Lesson Learned: Always make sure you can open every door in your prospective house.

Burning Question: Is it just me, or do these people move on from death pretty fast?

Bloodlock
6/10