Bloodlock

This is one of several short films contained on a DVD entitled "Short #9: Trust". I mention the name of the DVD, not so you'll watch it, but so you can avoid it. It's an amazingly bland and often unpleasant collection of films that left me very cold. One of the least pleasant viewing experiences as I watched it was seeing BLOODLOCK.

The film begins with two thugs storming into a home and holding two guys at gunpoint. It seems one of them owes these lowlifes money and they will either get it now or kill the two guys. It seems that this is the result of a drug deal and it's all very tense and filled with one expletive. In fact, this F-word is used so often that it loses its impact and you really wish they'd just kill the two guys and end the film as well as get a larger repertoire of dirty language.

The print quality of this short in particular was pretty poor--looking washed out and older than 1998. This may not have been the fault of the film makers, but the camera work was. Too often, poorly aligned shots and a non-stationary lens made the viewing experience difficult and made the production look cheap. This is odd, as the film did have some interesting car stunts and a sky cam!! This really was incongruous and I wish they'd spend less energy on the sky cam and car chase and more on the story and simple camera work. Additionally, the film just seemed to end with little resolution...and I turned to my daughter and said "is that is?!".

Bloodlock gets you interested in the storyline from the start. Even the fact that it was shot on Hi-8 adds a news-like immediacy.

I seen Bloodlock on the DVD Short 9: Trust, which includes an audio commentary track which is well worth listening to, as well as some outtakes from the video.

Track this video down if you can; I'm sure we'll be seeing great things from these filmmakers soon.