Brotherhood of Blood

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!

granted, this movie has a very clever ending. yet the other 90% of it simply left me scratching my head. not that i can never think while watching a movie, but a movie this convoluted needs a map or something. The unnecessary complexities in the plot are mostly red herrings designed merely to confuse. But the casting I like. There's at least some good actors who can pull it off.

Well, at least the young directors showed precocious talent: *brotherhood of blood* cost a mere $100,000 to make but looks like it cost 5-times that figure. It's nice to see directors make the most of meager resources.

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.

The one thing I came for was the duo of Side Haig and Ken Foree, but even they couldn't boost it up much. As I learned after the fact, "Brotherhood of Blood" comes from the writers of a masterpiece called "Far Cry" which I recently saw as part of 'that bad?' review series. Not a good coincidence. They also have "Bloodrayne" and "Alone in the Dark" under their belts. This is a movie with very low production values, shabby cinematography, bad lighting, an entire set of flaws. Story's mehh, acting's for the TV, gore's cheap, and so on... Did I just review the whole movie?

We are thrown in a world where vampires are real, and the hunters are also doing their thing. Both parties are going about their business, which is often hard to care about, the plot barely engages, moving from scene to scene with cheese and goofs attracting more attention, and more tedium setting in by the minute. The filmmakers have tried to make it more interesting by splitting time lines in the storytelling, all leading up to the foreseeable connecting finale, but it ultimately adds nothing much, as the plot is still predictable and hard to care about. "Brotherhood of Blood" relishes in its own vampire lore, but barely ever makes it interesting. Acting's really inconsistent, though mostly amusing enough, for a variety of reasons. However, some dialogue is delivered so dry You couldn't believe, and prepare for lines like "we're vampire hunters, not fu**ing accountants". Sid Haig and Ken Foree do their deeds, but it matters little, when we're inside such a C movie.

The lighting and camera work at some points resemble a home video, while at some points it's acceptable enough. Inconsistent, not counting feeling cheap, that endures. Too many zooms, editing can be a bit odd too. Budget constraints can further be seen in the variety and charm of locations, and what the costume department managed to come up with. The musical score's in with the vibe of the whole thing, and is all kinds of overdramatic, typical and/or misplaced.

As to what exactly Sam Raimi liked enough to pick this movie as one of the first releases of his new label back in the day, I'm not sure. Maybe because enough is indeed happening throughout, but perhaps I missed the fun of it all somehow. It's a drab, rather emotionless, inadvertedy funny piece of horror that couldn't be saved be starpower. My rating: 2/10.

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.