Blood Bags

"Blood Bags" is horror movie with a mostly generic plot despite the intriguing premise. What it lacks in story, it makes it up with style as much as the budget allows: visually, it reminded me both of Italian horror classics and of some John Carpenter's early flicks (very similar, minimalist use of cinemascope). The synth score has some 80s vibe too, even though I can't say what the main inspiration actually was. The title (and the poster) are quite unfortunate choices: the set you up for a splatter fest and what you get is mostly an atmospheric, quasi-gothic flick. There's some gore in there, but not too much. When everything is said and done, this movie is still a step or two above the average indie horror flick: not perfect, not a masterpiece, but you can tell effort, talent and craftsmanship went into it.

"Blood Bags" had my attention from the title sequence with its solidifying moments of placing a light on real life medical macabre, Gunther's Disease. It is close to the chilling excitement I felt over the inbreeding images teased in the "Wrong Turn" and "Hills Have Eyes" franchises. Plus this film sets up a creepy cool urban legend of day trip urban adventurism gone wrong. It is a clever, well developed concept that hits all the horror tropes without being boring.

The acting is pretty good. A few of the scenes feel a bit over-rehearsed, but the majority of the film feels quality. The cast, though stereotypical, are interesting and fully developed. Plus they are easily relatable personas. I do wish that the "creature" and old man's story would have gone deeper into their history. I feel that desire is purely my own morbid fascination with these two characters. Still there is plenty here to invest in.

The horror is what we come to expect and fully love in quality Italian horror. It feels contemporary and yet pays tribute to classic giallo and shock horror. For some of "Blood Bags" length I kept recalling the thrilling enjoyment I get watching "Cat O' Nine Tails". This film is entertaining, creepy and atmospheric without over exploitation of the gore aspect- which will make shock horror gorehounds happy.

Overall "Blood Bags" is a fun, modern giallo that never rips off it's roots, nor does it become boring. The flaws are minimal and the story is chilling, straightforward horror. For me this film offers a great example of where Italian horror should thrive in modern horror. I think the weakest moment in the film may be at the end, it should have ended with a bit more "shock'n'awe". Still "Blood Bags" is worth checking out. Pay attention to the nice love letter to Argento toward the end of the film- classic.

This is clearly an indie movie and has to be judged as such. The plot is pretty standard and simple, but most of the actors do their job solidly and the movie flows rather well. The characters are sketched rather than written, but I never sit in front of a horror movie expecting to see a character-driven piece - and most characters in horror movies are just stereotypes anyway. I did like the fact none of them is particularly pleasant: it did add some realism. Same for the use of different languages (Italian and what I think is Russian) along with English - I actually quite like movies that mix languages. The title seemed pretty dull at first, but it kind of make sense when you get to the third act.Despite the low budget, the movie actually manages to build up atmosphere, which is not a given. The score is one of things I liked the most: it doesn't draw too much attention to itself, but it works. Camerawork was fine, even though some scenes look way better than others. One of the visual highlights of the movie is a dream sequence that is shot in one, long single take: it's weird and it looks like they filmed it in a catacomb of sorts (I reckon catacombs are easy to get in Italy). There's a thin layer of grain over the image, which is there to emulate film: I am not a fan of that, but lots of movies do it (like Rob Zombie's stuff or "Mandy"), so I guess is trendy. The director is probably a huge horror fan, since there are references to many other scary movies, some of them rather obscure: wether or not this is a flaw, it boils down to one's own taste. Personally, I found it amusing. All in all, I thought it was a good indie - a notch above the average STV horror flicks that I get to see everyday. PS: the American cover is way better than the other one with the lead girl on it - why there's two of them is beyond me.

While this 2018 horror movie "Blood Bags" start out quite adequately, it isn't long into the feature before it takes a nosedive and director Emiliano Ranzani never really manages to get the movie back on course.

The movie is set to take place inside an old house with a very limited cast, which means that there is additional pressure on the cast to perform as they are on constantly. Ultimately, the actors and actresses failed to do this, because they were severely limited in terms of what they had to work with in script, plot, storyline and characters.

It should be said that the acting performances were adequate, taking into consideration the limitations imposed upon the actors and actresses. However, you shouldn't go expecting anything grand Shakespearian here.

The storyline itself turned out to be less than mediocre. It went from being sort of interesting to becoming a prolonged suffering in a short time. I did manage to sit through the entire movie, though, but it was an ordeal.

The characters in the movie were flat and flaccid, with very little in terms of background, motivation, drive, and growth. They essentially were written by writers Emiliano Ranzani, Davide Mela and Scarlett Amaris to be cardboard cutouts.

The movie doesn't really make use of a heavy amount of CGI or special effects, nor that it would have mattered much, as it wouldn't have been able to save the movie. The creature stalking the house was just bland once you actually got to see it. While it was skulking around in the shadows, where we just had glimpses of it, seeing its shadow, or seeing it is distant shots, it actually worked out quite well.

All in all, "Blood Bags" is a poor addition to the horror genre, and it offers nothing interesting or nothing new. I am rating it a mere three out of ten stars.

Very slow going. Not a lot of action. About half the dialogue was in Italian without subtitles so that didn't help. Why is it when the bad guy is strangling someone, they never see them reaching for a gun? A lot of heavy raspy breathing and blurry photography. Give this a pass.