Blood Punch

Rock'n'Roll type of time loop movie. Thrills and spills, action, blood, violence, snappy cool lines and attitude, a lot of crossing and double-crossing, like a mix of Breaking Bad, The Transporter, and Groundhog Day.

Most time loop movies tend to be grim affairs, the characters struggling to cope, all about learning something about themselves or life from the experience, guiding them toward a realization about love or betterment, and such. While Blood Punch does have a depth of its own, it's just geared differently to be more of an action/adventure fun/gorefest entertainment ride. The characters struggle to cope, they change due to the experience, but it's not over-dramatized and ponderous.

There isn't a race against time/events that has characters try to change things before the next loop, but a situation where a small group of people don't trust each other and are trying to get out of the loop alive. The way the film is edited, kind of narrated and unchronological, adds to that rock'n'roll action movie feeling, but also makes it a little more confusing than it needed to be, where details about the loop aren't explained or demonstrated well -- specifically, why some people do and some don't remember the loop. It's a key piece of information that would help audiences understand why there is a shift in the story and character allegiances.

The one area I felt could've made this story better was if there were other loop sequences of different people teaming up and other loop sequences of every man for himself, as it would have further highlighted the untrustworthy situation they were all in together, and allowed for other scenes of high stakes cat and mouse games going on.

If those things had played a bigger part in this film, it would've pushed my rank higher and higher. As it is tho, it's still a great time loop movie not to miss.

Groundhog Day meets John Dies at the End. OK the plot was nothing like JDatE, but the tone really reminded me of that film.

Refreshing (if not entirely original) premise with characters that grew to be likeable after a rocky start.

Mostly good acting and great cinematography.

Ultimately pretty silly, but well worth giving your time to if you are in the mood for a light hearted horror evening.

After being caught cooking meth, a teen is sent to rehab. It is here that he meets a young beautiful girl who offers him a job. They go to a remote cabin with her boyfriend and third partner in their little drug scheme. Things go a little wrong for them when they begin to turn on each other. Things go from bad to worse when they find themselves caught in an old Native American curse. Now they must find a way to break free, or forever be dammed.

I was given this little indie flick by my uncle, who surprisingly sang its praises. So I went in with modest expectations and came out with a smile on my face, a sense of disappointment and a feeling of "I've seen this done better before".

Blood Punch has one aspect about the film that I would love to talk about, but feel that it would ruin the surprise. So I'm at odds here because this happens in the first act and the rest of the movie is wrapped around this plot device. It's nothing new or original, in fact it's been done to 'death'. Yet it's the inspired direction from Paxson that really gives Blood Punch a sense of accomplishment. The drama in the beginning takes a turn to black comedy once we arrive at the cabin. The film tries a balancing act and works for the most part, it's just that I didn't really find it too funny.

The genres this film mixes a fast and furious. There is even a action heavy shoot-out for crying out loud. This might make it seem like the film doesn't know what it wants to be, but I believe Paxson and crew knew exactly what they were doing here. An ode to some crazy Raimi/Coen Brothers hybrid of a film.

While interesting enough to keep my attention, bizarre enough for me to want to find out more. This is a film that I can't really see myself watching again anytime soon. I can't place my finger on it. The acting is serviceable to the story. The direction above what one can expect from a low-budget indie black comedy flick and the blood effects will make the horror fan smile. It simply feels like a precursor to something more, something bigger, something better down the road for the career of Paxson, if anything.

I like straight up horror movies and generally don't go for horror/comedy mixes like this one. But Blood Punch keeps the comedy kind of low key - much moreso than the popular Evil Dead. I just watched Blood Punch last night and enjoyed it very much. I usually put something on Amazon Prime to go to sleep -- but this movie kept me up too late!

The actors are good and I thought Ari Boyland was very good as the psychopathic Russell. He reminds me of a young Kurt Russell. Olivia Tennet is also very good as the brash and seductive leading lady.

The story is crazy and makes you wonder how they think these things up. But the movie is done well in a way that is both entertaining and suspenseful. I really found myself wondering how our protagonists were going to get out of their very unusual situation.

I won't go into particulars but the twisted plot requires a great deal of bloodshed. So much that it might be too much. I don't mind gory horror but the repetitive brains-getting-blown-out is the only facet of this movie that irritated me at all. Otherwise a great effort. Congratulations to the filmmakers.

I had various friends and blogs recommend this movie to me, but I kept avoiding it, mostly because the title and poster made me certain that I would be getting just another brain-dead horror movie gore-fest. Boy, was I wrong.

What I got instead was one of the best low-budget indie movies that I've seen in years. I know, I know. It feels weird to be lumping those kind of lavish praises on a movie like this, but what can I say? This movie took a somewhat bitter and skeptical viewer like me and converted me into a believer with an incredibly ambitious and clever script, three really solid performances from the lead actors, and a fun sense of style that somehow made the movie feel both classic and modern at the same time.

I really don't want to give away anything specific when it comes to the plot and story. It's much better going into it cold and knowing as little as possible. It's a blend of film noir, horror, science fiction, and black comedy and yet somehow comes together almost perfectly, blending and juggling all these familiar genres into its' own incredibly unique and distinctive vision. I watch a lot of movies and often feel like I've seen it all and know where most stories are headed, but this is a movie that really keeps you on your toes. The script was always one step ahead of me and had me guessing right up until the very end.

In general, the look and production values are quite good, but you could definitely feel some of the movie's lack of budget and resources in some areas. But I found myself way too swept up in the story to ever really mind or care. And the three main leads, who are playing very familiar and almost cartoonish archetype characters, do an incredible job of making these characters come across as totally believable and real human beings.

This is an amazingly underrated and totally overlooked little movie. I highly recommend it.