Blood Relic

Director Ingvordsen's third foray into the horror genre proves to be his best attempt yet. Not a masterpiece by any means, but also devoid of any pretense claiming itself to be... his movies never try to be anything more than they are - a stab (no pun intended) at some good old fashion scary fun. Although the story has a couple of clever gags, beyond the smoke and mirrors the script is rather formulaic, and thus somewhat predictable. The actors are a bit of a mixed lot with Park, Grant, & Steccato a step above the rest. Ironically, the film's only actor of mainstream notoriety, Billy Drago gives a tremendously "over the top" effort and the worst performance in the film. Scream Queen Debbie Rochon does her job well and provides a nice mammary cameo... but other than that she is rather forgettable. The locations used are pretty cool and definitely up the production value. Although Ingvodsen has begun to introduce more flesh and gore with this movie -- he hasn't learned that although Sam Raimi was from the bootleg special effect school, he at least did it well. Note to the director - get a real special effects artist next time, there is only so much disbelief to be suspended. In writing a critique, I am being critical... with my pet peeves aside, the movie was worth a watch. It held a good pacing, was well shot and edited, and has some great moments. If it's a low-budget slasher flick you want, then you've found it.

A cast of mostly anonymous teenagers hired to clean a aerospace museum experience bloody mayhem after one of them finds an occult talisman. This film is strongly adequate in most categories. The photography is professional. The direction is reasonably assured. The cast isn't too embarrassing, and generally all of the girls show some flesh. The aerospace museum location adds production value even though most of the mayhem happens in a more generic warehouse. The gore is adequate – though the make-up generally plays out in the aftermath of the attacks rather than in the violence itself. So what's the problem? It's just tired. Young, good-looking people being killed off one-by-one by a masked assailant. Been there, seen that. I needed an extra hook, and there wasn't one. The potential of an interesting "monster" was wasted. The talisman is a wasted device. It seems turns the wearer into a homicidal maniac. The characters are always simply running from the unknown human carrier than battling the demonic entity pulling the strings. It would have been more interesting if the filmmakers had taken the time to develop force behind talisman better, and let the characters try to figure a way to take it on directly. Not terrible, when you consider the low standards of the genre, but there are better films out there.

Blood Relic (2005) is another in a long line of terrible straight-to-video movies. Some are fun but most of them are dreadful and unwatchable. This is one of those that need to be not seen and never heard from. The only reason that I didn't give this movie a straight zero was that low budget movie queen Debbie Rochon was in the picture and she was hot to look at. Other than that I wouldn't give it the time of day. Billy Drago looks like he drank all of his money. He could barely stand up and all he did was mumble his badly written dialog. He tries to come off like Udo Kier. But Udo's cool and he can still deliver a performance. Billy Drago was just too painful to watch. A bad movie all around that doesn't warrant a further look.

Stay away, not recommended.

For myself a B-Movie I generally would not watch twice. but I would this one back on. This movie was pretty cheesy, but it was entertaining. The story was OK... not very original... But.. There were no plot holes... Which I believe is probably the most important aspect in telling a story.. (Weather its good or not...)

The acting was OK at best. The woman in this flick are very attractive. (Which was helpful) There was enough nudity and comedy to justify this movie being truly a traditional slasher flick.

There isn't really a whole lot one can do in making a horror movie that doesn't at least remind you of another horror movie you've seen. In that respect, Blood Relic is no different.

There's not enough time spent showing how all these folks who know each other actually know each other, or why those who DON'T know the others are there in the first place.

Some films talk too long about integral parts of the movie, but Blood Relic just slaps the main inanimate character in, expects you to believe it, and then tries half heartedly about halfway through to explain where it came from.

A few gratuitous partial nudity shots for no apparent reason, some excess blood from small wounds and not enough from large ones, and a few other shortcomings detracted from the whole movie.

My main complaint is that the characters aren't explained or developed at all. After each character's fatal meeting with the bad guy(s), you're generally left thinking "Awww, and I hardly even knew that one, either." I had no problem with the movie though. As someone who takes every opportunity available to watch what others routinely refer to as 'bad' movies, I'd give it a five (or even better) because it had a little of the horror, blood, screeching, running around senselessly, etc. that I've come to love in my movie fare.

And another feature to this flick... Do you simply LOVE a freaky ending? I like unexpected twists, as long as they're plausible. The ending of Blood Relic is...

Something you'll just have to see for yourself!