Blood Craft

"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.

Seen a couple of the directors films, great efforts for an amateur filmmaker, usually using controversial subject matter to help sell the film. This is a cliche ridden film that really isn't worth the time. You really find yourself not feeling any sympathy for the sisters at all.

Some bad props.......the magic book looks like drawn by a three year old!? One Sister in the many (confusing) flashbacks seems to age quicker than the other by a few years, for some reason a nasty priest has married a witch?, The older sister....who also helped write the screenplay has far too much obvious plastic surgery and just looks freakish with huge cheeks and lips ......she is supposed to be a sexy dancer!? But she looks too old to be in this role (Whitney dressed as Britney) body is nice but what has she done to her face!? Acting is wooden although the vicar really gets into his role as a sadist, and the county clerk's Sheriff father is a great actor, not used enough, the story non sensical and you will find yourself talking at the screen saying wtf!? When they do stupid things........why hold a severed ear to own ear when supposed to be talking to it?? Add to that pointless incest lesbian kiss scene which added nothing to the lazy story. Let's not even mention the supposed SFX 😁 if it was gorier it would have added a star but they are dime store level after FX . ..... The coat hanger scene had promise but became unintentionally amusing.

Some of the camera work is great, and the director definitely has talent, this just seems like was a case of wrong cast and weak script with a cliche story. Given the right story and better cast he may be one director to watch.

Oh and to the other reviewer ...it's spelt "soul" 😁

Just a big fat no! I was so distracted by Madeleine Wade's plastic, over filled Botox face that I couldn't concentrate on the rest. If the rest had been good enough my obsession with her face would have only been fleeting. The above should be enough to show how rubbish this movie is!

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

When I got the movie and looked it up on IMDb I swear I saw the rating at 2.1. I took a chance, anyway, I've found movies that are little gems in the very low ratings bin. Even so, it is not often I find one of these gems, but definitely found one now.

The production values were quite good for a movie rated 2.1 or 3.7. The acting was reasonably good, surprising, considering the rating.

All in all quite a good movie for its rating, give it a try.