Blood Creek

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning A few years before the outbreak of World War 2, the Third Reich send a professor to live with a poor German family who've relocated to Virginia in America. He reveals himself as a practitioner of the dark occult arts, who takes over their home and takes on a venomous blood lust to survive. Years later, two brothers are driven back to the house he stayed at on a mission of personal revenge, only to find the real perpetrator come back to life and try to exact his venom on them. This is the 'latest' Joel Schumacher film that it would seem has actually been held back for two years and appears to have arrived straight to DVD on these shores. His last (and most recent) foray into the horror genre The Number 23 with Jim Carrey was a rockety, shambolic road indeed that showed a pretty decent (if never great) director veering off course a bit, but Blood Creek is sadly evidence of a past it hack who's gone over the hill. An unfathomable mess, the story is a ridiculous, convoluted mess, opening in a pretentious black and white film noir style before flitting the story to the present day and back into colour again, with a plot that's lost you about twenty minutes in, marred with a blurry, slap shot filming style that's even with the even more shambolic story, before finally revealing a villain that seems like Freddy Kruegger with a liver problem. It's all just a nonsensical, sad revalation of a director who's deteriorated into what could at best be called senility and at worst madness. *

Once again we traveled through the dark forces of evil in a plot involving occultism and the Third Reich but this time these forces resurrected in the present days. In "Town Creek" (or "Blood Creek" depending on the place you live the title is changed) the story of two brothers (Henry Cavill and Dominic Purcell) must fight against a diabolic creature (Michael Fassbender) that needs human bodies and souls to being brought back to a new and eternal life (I might be wrong with this presentation but it's something like that) Now, did I care about this story and these characters? Not even for a moment. Everything is quite predictable, nothing is scary, the gore was uninteresting, the visual effects are quite laughable if not cheesy (the one with the flaming horse was really funny). The plot is a complete mess that not even a good director like Joel Schumacher could've save from its own sake. Why is he wasting himself away with such projects? After the 2000's the guy only had one interesting film ("Phone Booth"), the others were between okay and disappointing but "Town Creek" puts him in the bottom of the barrel for good. You can't learn anything from here (but it wasn't the mission of this film) but you can't even have a decent entertainment to put your brain to rest from problems and more elaborated flicks. In fact, here's what I got from this ridiculous piece of garbage. 1) One hour and half thrown to the wind with few compensations, Henry Cavill's looks being one of those, not to mention he's great playing an action hero and 2) I finally get it why they had to edit the film in that awful shaky way where you can't watch the images. They did that to make average viewers who only uses one percent of the brain never see the countless flaws and mistakes this film has in terms of script, everything is so bloody distractive. If wasn't for Cavill and for a nice appearance of Michael Fassbender (the one at the beginning with the story's introduction with him playing a Nazi once again; the ones with visual effects and make up on his face are just boring), this film would be one of the worst I've seen in a long time. Certainly, it was the worst of Joel Schumacher (so far!) and one of the weakest I had the unfortunate pleasure to watch. 2/10

Not sure how a filmmaker as prolific as Joel "Lost Boys" Schumacher could make his return, in essence, to the vampire horror subgenre only to find his finished product, "Blood Creek," tossed into second-run theaters in a handful of locations with virtually no heads up to the popluace. (As of this writing, the IMDb listing is still "Town Creek," and not "Blood Creek.") Lionsgate apparently thought they had a marketing nightmare on their hands... which may indeed be the case. This imperfect yet original thriller deals with such batshit insane subject matter as undead Nazis, demonic horses, Viking runestones, suits of bone armor, human sacrifice, and the beginning of an occult war that Germany began back in the 1930s. So okay, perhaps it's easy to see, at least on the surface, why this might have been a hard sell. It's just too bad most horror fans won't get a chance to see this one-of-a-kind original in the wake of so many remakes, reboots, and sequels. At least somebody had their thinking cap on when conceiving this thing... or at the very least were taking some heavy duty crazy pills. I mean, did I mention that a Nazi "vampire" (for lack of a better word) possesses a horse that nearly kills our protagonists like some kind of man-eating beast? Or that he later hammers a hole in his forehead before tearing off his face and growing a third eye? WTF?! True, "Blood Creek" isn't for everyone, which probably explains why it will find its audience primarily on the DVD circuit even had its release not been as top secret as Germany's occult activities during WWII. The concept is so insane, so bereft of screaming teenagers, so utterly lacking in irony despite the absolute insanity splashed upon the screen, it's bound to turn a lot of viewers off. To make matters worse, a tedious black and white prologue complete with unnecessary voice-over stains the beginning of the film, hinting too much at the later goings-on when it would have been more fun to learn the truth as the film surges forward. This seems like a studio afterthought, tacked on gracelessly before an otherwise inspired and fast-moving siege flick. If you want a fresh take on "vampires" and aren't yet tired of evil Germans circa 2009, this promotionless horror flick should fit the bill despite its issues. Once the pace kicks up, it never relents, and the mythology it creates is interesting albeit completely daft. What's here certainly falls into the "Night of the Living Dead" formula (a house under siege by supernatural forces), but with an off-the-reservation twist. Check it out... if you can find it.

The acting is passable and the concept interesting but the film is so poorly written as to defeat any positive. Thirty minutes in and the film could have ended. If you want to kill a houseful of people, why go in and chase them down one at a time, risking capture or injury, just set the house on fire and shoot them as they come out or let them burn up. Sure, he was looking for one person in particular but what did it matter, he knew exactly where to look and found him within minutes anyway. Story over. Or he could have brought the police and story over. Ultimately there is no reason for the last hour except as padding and that is exactly how it felt.

Though I know Schumacher is an established and good director, it's still hard to forgive him for practically ruining the Batman franchise. Town Creek is definitely a good redemption piece. I will admit, the first 40 minutes of the 90 total minutes had my head spinning at what this is all about. It didn't help that the original title was Blood Creek then changed to Town Creek. I definitely agreed with the "blood" part of the first name, but was/still am confused on the "creek" and "town" words. Sure, there's a creek involved, for all-but 56 seconds, but as far as I remember, there isn't much of a "town;" the overwhelming majority takes place on a farm. At any rate, the movie begins to unravel and it quickly becomes clear on what this movie's about. And, frankly, it's not that bad at all. The movie begins more than half a century ago with the Nazi's mission to locate the occult and its items of witchcraft located in…West Virginia, USA. (Really? Uh, okay, then.) An officer's willing to pay top dollar ($150! Fine, today would probably be over a thousand) weekly for the search on their land. They reluctantly agree and he finds what he's looking for quite quickly. The power (literally) goes to his head and, now, let's fast forward to the present… …Brothers reunite after one went missing for two years, and older brother, Victor (Purcell) leads his younger sibling, Evan (Cavill) to a sectioned off/private farmland to shoot up the inhabitants. Other than loyalty to his brother, paramedic Evan really shouldn't be involved in such cold-hearted murders, but, alas, he goes, attempts this and with his inner-conflicts, he botches a lot of Victor wants to achieve: the deaths of the entire family living on this farm. But, he's also looking for a "him" also living there. It's quickly apparent the family's equally afraid of the "man" living on their property, and once released from their makeshift prison, all literal hell breaks loose. Not too hard to place two and two together to discover both who the evil "man" is as it is the family living at the estate, but that's besides the many points/plot twists the movie brings up. It turns out the man can't enter the house where Evan, Victor and what's remaining of the family is hiding out due to symbols they've painted on the windows/doors. But, the "man" can kill mammals and send them in to get the blood he needs to "advance to the next stage." Quite frankly, I've given away a lot of the surprises in this feature, but I assure you, as I stop here in the plot synopsis section of my review, there's so much more to the storyline. As is there are other good qualities to the movie. Like I said, Schumacher is an established director; he knows how to build suspense, creativity and make a movie. This is a well crafted film and does have surprisingly good acting on all fronts. And though the plot (or I should say, the second portion of the movie) isn't the most original (SEE: Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight) it's still entertaining and recommended for horror buffs. Just do what I did, brave through the first 40 or so minutes and let the pieces fall into place and have fun.

A Joel Schumacher helmed horror flick starring Michael Fassbender as a deranged, occult obsessed Nazi zombie vampire, hunted by Lincoln Burrows from Prison Break. Sounds like a flick from an alternate dimension that doesn't exist, right? Well it's out there, tough to find as it was somehow buried around it's 2009 release, and relegated to a relic before it was even a decade old. Shame, because it's a ton of warped, bloody fun. Officially titled 'Blood Creek' on iTunes, it can also be found as 'Town Creek' or simply 'Runes' elsewhere, but like they say, a rose by any other name. Fassbender is all kinds of scary in a black and white prologue as a Nazi occult agent who shows up at a rural American farm to study ancient Nordic runes which may hold the key to resurrection of the dead. His chilling work initially is nothing compared to the balls-out, gory makeup covered incarnation he gets to prance around in later though. In present day, two brothers race into the foggy backwaters to stamp out this evil, and they're played by an intense Dominic Purcell, as well as Superman himself, Henry Cavill. Not a whole lot of time is spent on character development for all involved, the film choosing instead to jump headlong into a notably gory free for all, banding together with the poor German family who has had to deal with this psycho for almost a generation on their farm. At a crisp ninety minutes, there ain't much time for anything but action and gore, with a few scarcely scattered, breathless moments of exposition that were already made clear in that prologue, the one interlude of the film that isn't soaked in adrenaline. Hats off to Fassbender under all that chatty, gooey makeup, his physicality is really menacing, and who else gets to play a Nazi vampire zombie who pounds a metal stake into his own forehead to make room for an emerging third eye? Truly a villain for the ages, had the film been allowed to gain any notoriety. And what other film can boast a sequence in which Purcell eagerly blasts zombified, rabid horses with a shotgun, chunks flying all over the barn? Such are the levels of disturbed imagination on parade. Poor Schumacher though, really. This would've been his first good film in awhile back then, and the studio goes in for the kill on every single marketing front, not even giving it decent room to breathe on DVD. At least it's still floating about on iTunes, where any horror fan would be rewarded with a rental.

Who knew Joel Schumacher had a horror movie in him? Let alone a good one? Blood Creek takes the Nazi fascination with the occult and uses it as the springboard to an exciting, suspenseful scarefest. The absolutely brilliant cast--including Michael Fassbender, Dominic Purcell, and Henry Cavill--does a stalwart job all round, and where some other directors and their performers would have allowed a picture like Blood Creek to succumb to low camp, everyone involved with the film plays it razor straight. The atmosphere is dark and malevolent, and the limited setting--primarily an isolated farm somewhere in West Virginia--used to great effect. This is a gory film, and while some of the on screen mayhem should have probably been left to the imagination, the copious bloodletting is realistic and certainly holds viewer attention. The only reason this isn't a minor classic is because of the numerous plot holes--lots of things happen that even within the context of the very bizarre plot don't make a lot of sense, and other plot threads are left frustratingly unexplained. Otherwise, if you can take the graphic carnage in stride, this is a superior horror film that would see several of its stars go on to bigger and better things.

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.

I decided to watch this movie based solely on the cover of the movie. So I had no expectations to the movie, as I had no idea who was in it or what it was really about. The movie starts out slow but quickly builds up in pace and intensity. The story is somewhat strange up until maybe two-fourths into the movie where it dawns on you what is going on. It picks you up and drops you right in the middle of the action, for an exciting thrill ride. I found this movie to be surprisingly nice, despite the relatively unknown cast. Anything that have undead Nazis in it is somehow bound to be good entertainment. I was a bit perplexed by the appearance of the nazi, but it turned out to be alright. I am not going to be giving out any spoilers here. The ending of the movie was somewhat anti-climatic.

BLOOD CREEK (aka TOWN CREEK) is pretty much a mess of a movie - in more ways than expected. But at least this very minor effort by Joel Schumacher continues his tradition of introducing fine lads to the screen in hopes of launching a career (Colin Farrell in TIGERLAND is a typical example). The story/screenplay by David Kajganich tries very hard to be substantial (Viking runes were left in about eight farms and the Nazi's preoccupation with the occult made them spend years tacking them down - the runes being a means toward immortality if you drink the right blood yada yada yada...), but in the end this is just another of the genre as SAW 1 - 6(?), Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Halloween 1 - 5, etc. If lots of blood and crazy behavior on a farm in dark territory inhabited by ageless creatures under the spell of a crazy guy is what rocks your boat, then welcome aboard. The redeeming factor in the movie is the presence of Henry Cavill (of the Tudor series fame and fine actor waiting to be used in some choice roles) and Dominic Purcell. As brothers bent on vengeance they make the most of this plot, giving it as much dignity as could be expected. They deserve better material as they are both fine actors and personalities. So Joel Schumacher can't really be run out of town for this movie - he at least gave the two primary actors the chance for screen time. Only or those who love gore. Grady Harp