Brotherhood of Blood

Seriously, it seems that anyone with a bottle of catsup and a pair of wax fangs thinks he can make a vampire movie, which is why most of them are so bad.

This movie was better than most in terms of plot and storytelling. A group of vampire hunters is seeking the brother of a rich CEO who was bitten in Romania. Meanwhile, the vampires themselves are hunting the same brother to prevent the resurrection of "Vlad Bossei" a super-vampire who lived in the 12th century.

There are all sorts of twists, turns, double-takes, and some of them don't really make sense, but the movie is fun for what it is, and the actors actually look like they are trying.

This movie stars Sid Haig & Ken Koree (Dawn of the Dead). The lead actress is very attractive and the outfits she wears is really the only thing that makes this movie even barely watchable. I watched this movie with several men and women who are big fans of horror movies and nobody liked it at all. I had to try and not fall asleep a few times. The main problem is that the movie is too talky, and almost all the scenes are shot in a small room. The sets are flimsy, and you can see the steel door and entire wall buckle when someone pounds on the wall.

I did not realize that Jason Connery (son of the legend Sean Connery) was in the movie until after I watched it. He is one of the good guys, the only one with a British accent. He is pretty good in this but he is not in it very much. Sid Haig is pretty creepy and Ken Foree is fun, but the movie really blows. I was shocked to see that this movie had an average of 5.0 on a 10.0 scale on IMDb. I don't know what the other people were thinking of when they saw this. The movie has the feel of one of the really low budget Full Moon Charles Band movies shot in Romania. Charles Band made a bunch of excellent movies, but this resembles one of his quickie made turkeys.

I have met Sid Haig and Ken Foree at several horror conventions and they are lots of fun and nice guys. I really like them both and am glad to see that they are still in demand. They both are a big credit to the horror genre. Unfortunately, this movie is really bad and has very little to offer. The lead actress looks sexy and is a good actress. She struts around in tight sleeveless tee shirts, showing off her nice body. If you are looking for a good horror movie, pass on this and look for something else.

The acting is very good. The primary and secondary actors performed their roles really good. Everybody is believable - not usual for a vampire movie. The editing and sets were not great, but the story is what draws you in. The plot is fascinating, a multi-layered story. The film alternates between scenes from the present and about one week prior. Some may find that unnerving, but it is very well written.

I recommend this film for anyone who likes mysteries or intelligent horror stories. I give it 7 stars and not 8 or 9 cause you see that it is very low budget and the first 10 minutes or so is slow and you really don't know what is happening. But when it picks up - it pulls you through with a big bang!

I was able to attend the advanced screening here in New York and must say I enjoyed myself. First of all the movie is cool. It has a great story line plus it is simple. There are no huge dramatical special effects because the dialog and the story line, in itself, hold there own. You are just thrown into the plot head-on and then given little chance to breathe as the movie takes you deep into a story so rich with characters. The cinematography was really nothing to write home about, pretty standard stuff for the most part. The score was unobtrusive. The story is what drives this film and makes it special. And the actors were well chosen to run with the story. This movie gets two thumbs up from me.

Subtlety is a very important thing in any good horror movie. Not only does subtlety reduce the ridiculous amount of "in-your-face-quality" that today's horror movies seem to love, which effectively makes then just plain old action movies, subtlety shows that a film has respect for its audience. It doesn't feel like it has to explain everything at every step of the way since it knows that an interested audience will be on the lookout for hints as to what is going on. That's what makes films like this enjoyable. In fact, that what makes any film enjoyable. It isn't just a barrage of images, but rather an engaging sequence of them. This sequence can be unchronologically organized or in any number of ways obscured to create suspense, but as long as it is engaging, the audience will be happy. There are numerous hints as to what is really going on and the final climatic twist is really a good one.