Blood Creek

This is a horror movie about a Nazi necromancer, that means he can raise dead things to do his bidding. The actor interpreting the Nazi is Michael Fassbender. The director is Joel Schumacher. Now, with a premise like that, I expected a great movie, especially since I've read a review describing it in very positive words. Instead, I get a slight twist of a typical zombie/monster movie. I was disappointed.

What was amazing was how the movie started. Fassbender coming from Germany to the US, doing his nice guy voice (but with a German accent) explaining to a little girl how he can raise the dead, now that he had found a runic stone. Then a lot of detailed action and scenes explaining the story of the paramedic brother of a soldier lost in Iraq. Then suddenly the brother returns, all rags and long hair, asking for help to get guns and shoot people.

Then the film turns into the typical "group trapped with a monster and they have to kill him before it kills them" thing. The dichotomy between to two parts of the movie was shocking, like someone did two different films and then spliced them together, and therefore I can't really recommend the movie, except as a well done monster flick. Go in with low expectations and you might enjoy it fully.

I give a big applause to Joel Schumacher, the director. He's 70 years old when he directed this, imagine that. Joel is known for a few blockbusters like Batman and Robin and Batman Forever or even for 8mm. This supernatural tale was for me a big surprise on the blood content. I didn't really knew this flick but I've seen some of his efforts and really, this I would put into the horror label (with a supernatural twist of course). You could say that it could be compared with Jeepers Creepers (the way the killer acted, I mean). But I was a bit disappointed on the fact that it never was really scary or even frightening. Again, if you haven't seen creeps with white eyes than you surely will be frightened but I think people who will watch this are into the horror genre. But it's the use of gore and the special effects that really up-scaled my vote. The decapitation, the hitting with some kind of crowbar is really well done. CGI is used but in a very good way. It doesn't distract you from the screen. The acting was believable, let's face it, Fassbender is the biggest name and casted as a German nazi, great because he's German and does well on the accent. I had this DVD a lot of time in my hands at the shops and a few times I put it back on the shelves, but I'm glad that I picked it up again recently...

I hadn't heard anything about this movie prior to today, but checking IMDb to see what the local cheap theater had to offer came up with this. Having no desire to see anything else that was playing, my wife and I decided to drop a couple bucks on it and we were not disappointed.

In general, I am not a fan of WW2, Holocaust, or Nazi related films simply due to the obvious nature of nearly every plot line related to them. Even Inglorious Basterds irritated me because of this. Thankfully, Blood Creek takes itself not very seriously and throws in lots of other random plot devices (Viking runes, zombies, the occult, the war in Iraq, etc.) that make little to no sense but serve the film well.

If you like crappy modern B style horror films (I saw another commenter mention Drag Me To Hell, which I also enjoyed more than just about any other "big" release I've seen this year), then you can't really go wrong here. Iffy acting, senseless plot, and bad CGI are not enough to defeat the high entertainment value of this fast-paced flick. If I had expectations for this, or had I paid $10 to see it, I would probably be pretty irritated. But if you can catch it at your cheapo second run theater, I can think of far worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

Blood Creek is a solid if unspectacular genre effort from Joel Schumacher, of all people. Touting a great premise and intriguing cast, the film moves at a breakneck pace after a short prologue that takes place just before WWII. Henry Cavill (Stardust, Tristan + Isolde) and Dominic Purcell (Gravedancers, Blade Trinity) are fine as brothers forced to battle some serious evil in an undead Nazi occult agent played by the always great Michael Fassbender (Eden Lake, Inglorious Basterds). In addition, Emma Booth (The Boys Are Back, Clubland) and Shea Wigham (Splinter, Tigerland) both do well enough in supporting roles. The only major problem with the movie is that it ends up being not as awesome as you would think it'd be. Granted, it's still pretty fun, but the setup leads you to believe something much more intense and epic is about to take place. The possibility of a sequel is set up without coming off as crass and the ending doesn't make you feel like you've wasted your time, like a lot of other horror movies succeed in doing. All the effects work and blood/gore are well done and there's a memorable scene involving Fassbender controlling zombie horses. Yeah, you read that right. Zombie horses. Anyway, with every decent film Schumacher makes, the bad taste of his Batman whoopsies seem further and further away. Almost...

A friend raved about this movie, which I'd not seen nor heard of. A good cast which surprised me, and a possible attempt at a series. The idea was not wholly original, but I've seen it more on tv and comic books than in movie format. Not bad, some great visuals with the horses, and some good make-up effects. Not as good as I'd hoped from my friends recommendation, but enjoyable enough.