Blood Craft

I was with it up until the sister incest thing. Started out as a way-low budget supernatural dark comedy - eh, that may have been unintentional. "Keep 'em guessing," as the director of this flick was saying. Two orphaned sisters raised by a nonce perv pastor father are reunited by his death. They both have this peeve about having been made their father's sex slaves and decide to re-animate his body with their mother's goofy magic rituals. Then they can get a fair bit of torturing on the scoreboards, too. Okay, I'm down with all that, seems fair. Then they forget what they were doing and bone each other in their childhood bedroom. DONE!

Part of me was interested in 'Blood Craft's' concept, which actually turned out to be the main reason for watching it in the first place. The concept may not have been an original one but with the right execution it did have the potential to be quite creepy, and the film did have potential to be at least a guilty pleasure. Liked how 'Blood Craft' was advertised in the poster/cover too, which looked very cool and there was something unsettling about it too.

Will say right now that there are far worse films out there than 'Blood Craft', or so in my view. There are also films that waste any promise they have to a significantly worse degree, at least 'Blood Craft' didn't exactly promise a massive amount. One does know what to expect watching, exactly so, and there was a genuine honest attempt to not take it too seriously as it wasn't that kind of film. The cheapness, excessive nonsense and lack of any real atmosphere or anything to get behind just ruined it for me, and with those distracting me it was very difficult to take it for what it was.

The best thing, or should that be least bad (take your pick), about 'Blood Craft' is Michael Welch, who actually tries and makes the most of one of the film's least badly written, but with nowhere near enough screen time to properly save things, characters.

Some of the photography is not too bad, at least having some eerie atmosphere.

Unfortunately the low budget for 'Blood Craft' really does show, as most of the film looks cheap. Especially those amateurish props. The audio is so monotonous, never fitting with what is going on, really could have done with being reigned in more, has no atmosphere and the placement and build ups are just so obvious. Poorly balanced too with the very clunky and cheese-ridden dialogue. The story is completely lacking in any kind of thrills, tension, scary horror and suspense, replaced instead by gratuitous shock value, non-stop intelligence insulting nonsense, dull pacing (apparent very early on with far too much unnecessary padding) and excessive predictability. The backing and forthing structure sounded really interesting but was executed in a haphazard fashion which really muddled the story.

Found myself not endearing to or being compelled by any of the characters. There is no real character development beyond the set-up, making them merely just there ciphers, and their ridiculous and near-incoherent behaviour and decision made them very irritating. The direction is bland and workmanlike at that, have seen far more incompetent directing but this was not particularly assured stuff here. Welch aside, the acting is poor. Madeleine Wade and Augie Duke don't look comfortable and lack personality in my view, and it is sad to see Dominique Swain (who made such a promising impression in 'Lolita') reduced to projects like this.

In summary, just didn't do it for me. 2/10

"Blood Craft" mixes elements of the occult with deeper aspects of human tragedy, and reconciliation. The story plays with this in a chilling character study of scar tissue and a desire for closure. It starts with a dark, gritty, fetish kick and impulsively you are forced to really face the protagonist in a very"unpolished" state. The intention of both the director and the story becomes clearer later in the film. "Where you are in life is relative to your past".

"Blood Craft" is far from the typical witchcraft movie. There are these familiar tropes of some really bad guys, black magic, and revenge, Bressack's story goes deeper. There is human suffering, victimization, and pain as a catalyst. And in classic fashion and true to his nature, James Cullen Bressack explores those elements in harsh flourescent light, as blunt and uncomfortable as the truth.

The acting is palatable for the most part, the lead seems to draw emotion from a sort of 'shell-shocked' pool of survivor's guilt and doesn't really change gears, but the second lead is a disturbing, uneasy mix of "victim / devil's advocate, very convincing. A plus for "Blood Craft" is the fact that given the weight of the material woven into this supernatural nightmare, all the cast do great at delivering.

The special effects mix both practical and CGI. And to its detriment, works nicely, minus a couple of moments. The horror aspects are visceral and full of delicious occult affectations that offer enough eye candy for the fan of witchy horror. The film is low budget in both style and implementation. The cinematography is great and the music score fits perfectly with the heavy nature and dark overture of the picture. Now it works on a low budget scale so don't go in expecting an updated retelling of "The Craft". Overall I say check it out, it's classic Bressack filmmaking.

One shall be very careful giving a film 1 star worthyness, but the confusing plot and story makes me intimidated to do so, but i give 2 for the try. its a kind of horror movie that relapses, and showing the 2 mains life in retrospect, to tell why they have become such brittle soles. its a crooked pastor, and his supernatural powered wife, and their 2 daughters , in life and death, tears and smiles, angst and emotions, and fear and panic.

for short you can tell that their soles are damaged by abuse and religous fear, and the nightmare seems to never end. the acting are at times passable, but some of the cast seems very odd and uncomfortable in front of the camera, and therefore very stiff dialouges and unconvincing acting, makes you more occupied by the goofy acting than the story they are trying to tell.

the production have some nice props and settings,, and some of the sections were the past is told, but the fast and numerous and frequent shifts between past and present interupts the float of the plot.i did never connect with the sole of the story and therefore , as the grumpy old man i am,will not recommend this flick, unless you have the ability to interpret and analyse the disorders of psyciatrics, that turmoils the mains. its a try, but i wont rewatch this unless i get a good interpretation to the story that may put the spotlight in another angle.

The dialogue is clunky and the story just doesn't make sense. The characters' motivations are all over the place and sometimes nonsensical. I feel like there could have been a decent story here but the script would have to be almost completely rewritten. I agree with other reviewers that the acting and special effects aren't great but it's nothing compared to how bad the writing is.