It's in the Blood

Sheriff Russell (Lance Henriksen) and his son (Sean Elliot) find themselves trapped in the deep woods, confronting not only their own tattered relationship, but also a lurking creature. IT'S IN THE BLOOD is a survival / horror movie, as well as a story about overcoming the past. The monster is well-realized, and the CGI is -blessedly- kept to a minimum. Fans of Mr. Henriksen already know that he's been in a host of rather dubious films. This one isn't bad, due almost entirely to Henriksen's performance...

Okay really I'm not sure what this movie was EVEN trying to achieve. First of all it seems to have wasted the talents of Lance Henriksen. Convoluted scenes of what? Flashbacks? Not really even sure what's going on. Being hunted by some alien looking creature in the woods. Some rape scenes in a cabin. Some grisly amputation. All in some bizarre hit and miss attempt to try to find a plot. That about sums up what is going on here at the 2/3 of the way through point. -1 Star For the very lack of plot line 2/3 of the way through the movie. -1 Star For Pouring out alchohol that could be useful in many many kinds of situations. Totally made no sense at all. Made it to the end of this mess and the end was not rewarding in the least. But at least the end made it END praise the LORD. This one definitely needed to END and END IT DID! 3/10

This movie is hard to follow because there are a lot of scenes in which it looks like a bad drug trip and it's confusing. The best quality in the film is that the actors are all extremely good actors, including the villain. The scenes between October and Iris are extremely touching. Seriously, I haven't seen that kind of love displayed so well on screen in a while. Which made the scenes with the villain all the more awful. If it weren't for the trippy stuff that made this movie hard to follow I may have enjoyed this movie. Then again, the scenes with the villain are pretty disturbing. I watched this movie because I'm a Lance Henricksen fan. He's a very talented actor and I'd love to see him in more movies. Or bring him back to TV! Anyone remember the show Millennium?

It's not confusing, it's just so laden with obvious symbolism and deliberate ambiguity (like all too many faux "intellectual" student films) that it sloshes about struggling for "depth" and "deeper meaning" while never really delivering either. Out of focus shots and repetitious edits might mask some no-budget deficiencies but this film HAD a budget - they just didn't know what to do with it. Except hire Lance Henriksen. This is literally a case where it's worth watching just for the man's performance. It's a shame they didn't have a more focused script to be worthy of his involvement. Instead we have a twenty-minute arty student film stretched ponderously out to eighty minutes (yet feels a lot longer) when the same premise, intelligently presented (and grounded by Mr. Henriksen) could have made an excellent film at twice the length. The father and lost son dynamic; the horrifying incident in their past; the injury in the woods and, yes, even the threat of "something else in the woods" as a metaphor, all of these could have successfully been presented in a coherent fashion - even realistically as in Deliverance - instead of obscured by the art-house/third-year film student approach that makes this film far less than what it could have been. It's not that the film is simply bad - it isn't - it's just another example of "with a little more effort it could have been so much better." And then it might have been the showcase Lance Henriksen has long deserved.

Get someone like Lance Henrickson in your movie and then turn it into your private * project? Lance was great and the creepy guy was great at creepy sex pervert, otherwise your movie sucked as a self indulgent waste of time. It looked like a bunch of college students made it, but your gigantic egos wouldn't see il that Do I sound p* off? I am. Self indulgent crap. Lance fans, watch it for him. The director and producers ruined a perfectly good story (not particularly original by any means and the artsy fartsy crap didn't help. What the hell was with us being able to hear October's thoughts? What was that supposed to add to the movie?). You threw in everything but the kitchen sink. You stole that from A Beautiful Mind.

I can tell you one thing about this weird horror, you love it or hate it and I still don't know what to think about it. It do has a few creepy moments but it also got a lot of talking between father and son. I'm sure that once seeing it you will argue what it's all about. Who are those creature(s). What happened to the family? You have to watch very closely to get it all, it's full of flash backs but it also has moments of terror. Even the way that it was shot will leave some people wandering why it was shot that way. They used a lot of light and smoke in the wood to give some special(call it arty) shots. The best way to see this psychological horror is just by watching it and not knowing what's it all about. The acting is superb so on that part it works, it even got a graphic gore shot of a leg, it's all there but for some this flick will leave you with a few questions. Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Its somehow pleasantly atmospheric, the performances are better than ok, but the movie breaks about halfway through when the whole plot is exposed. the second half becomes painful to watch, and drags to a corny, unfulfilling end. i would 4.5 this based on lance henriksens performance, but given the choice id skip it altogether. not enough substance to fill out an already slim 80 minutes

What an amazing, thought-provoking horror flick! Whaaaa? That was NOT what I expected to say or think! The moment the show was over I looked to my viewing partner and we argued about what we had just seen. Was it this, was it that... neither of us was 100% sure. I am sure that having not seen anything quite like IITB before, I loved it. PSYCHE-SAGA, I'm in! Great character development, intriguing storyline, intense acting by Lance Henriksen and the "new" guy, Sean Elliot was right in-step the entire film. I thought the "explains the relationship" scene was pretty intense and graphic, but after it was over I exhaled and was prepared to dive deeper into the horror of the mind. I really liked the special effects surrounding Elliot's "special" mental skills. Similarly, the soundtrack was incredible for an indie film. The only part I thought could have been better developed was the explanation as to how both characters were experiencing the same sort of devilish apparitions, if that's what they were... But, that's the part I argued with my friend about, so I guess Scooter Downey had that figured out, if in his mind only - so be it. Check this film out, for sure - hopefully on a BIG screen with BOOMING sound! Not sure what the budget could have been for this production, but they got all they could out of every shot.

HAUNTED is a largely uninteresting low budget horror feature notable only for casting Lance Henriksen in a leading role. It's an essential two-hander in which a father and son head into the woods to bond but soon find themselves tracked down by a mysterious demonic creature. Is there really something stalking them or are dark secrets from the past to blame? The problem is that you won't really care because this film is sloppily written, focusing too much on uninteresting twists for the most part. The best thing about it by far is Henriksen, who delivers a performance of depth and disturbance, ably putting across the mind of a harrowed man. Henriksen has long been a cult favourite in supporting roles so it's nice to see him get the chance to shine here. Unfortunately the actor playing opposite him, Sean Elliot as the son, just can't keep up with his performance and he feels wooden, his character dull. The cinematography is pretty poor, with too many tricks trying to hide the low budget, and in the end it's a film where nothing much really happens. There's little insight come the finale, just unpleasant gore effects and a production in need of a proper story.

Despite some good acting by Lance Henriksen, this movie is hamstrung by a plot that makes no sense at all. It's not even a "makes you think" kind of ambiguity, just a complete failure to understand the rudiments of plot. Utter waste of time, and the positive reviews for this are clearly either the producers or some publicist involved -- no one could claim this movie was anywhere near good. The cinematography is passable, the special effects laughable, the guy playing October is horrific and has the charisma of a piece of toast, the monster is more kitschy than scary, etc. The guy who plays the villain comes off as suitably creepy at least, but that's about the most one can say about this dim-witted exercise in obfuscation.