Reviews and SPOILERS

If you've seen the movie, please post your thoughts here or reviews here. Spoilers allowed. After some time, we'll assume that enough time has passed and we'll take off the spoiler title.

I posted under "For the Fans" in "Links...." a blog post of my thoughts and a repost of the movie review when I saw it back in 2007 in a prescreening.

http://greyeyegoddess.multiply.com/journal/item/568

I wonder will blood creek be show in IRL I hope it will but i the it wrote

is there a site i can watch blood creek on line

I keep looking for something to download. I'll let you know.

MissL wrote:I wonder will blood creek be show in IRL I hope it will but i the it wrote

It might come around for Halloween. Who knows?

OK thanks I will look to i hope ti will come out here but i think i wot

http://heartinajar.blogspot.com/2009/12/up-creek.html

Sunday, December 6, 2009
Up a Creek
It was the spec script that brought writer David Kajganich out to Los Angeles in 2003 and earned him a slot on Variety's "Ten Screenwriters to Watch" list in 2006. Joel Schumacher got attached to direct, less than five years after helming one of the most lusted-after properties - Phantom of the Opera - that had circulated through Hollywood for the last decade and a half (even Spielberg was said to be interested). Lionsgate was the studio, a place that once knew what to do with Horror that wasn't a part of the Saw franchise...

...and then it all kinda went down the crapper. Kajganich saw the release of his first produced script - 2007's The Invasion, or, of the four versions of Jack Finney's classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the only Not Good one. Schumacher struck out with a return to lower-budgeted terror, The Number 23. And Lionsgate...well, it's best not to dwell on what happened to Clive Barker's Midnight Meat Train. Or maybe we should: in a repeat of what happened with that film's embarrassing treatment, the movie made from Kajganich's white-hot spec script Town Creek - now called Blood Creek - was unceremoniously and contractually dumped into a handful of budget cinemas this past fall, and is slated for a DVD release on January 19, 2010. And, as if to put a grace note on this whole through-the-looking-glass experience, now -- Now we get a trailer. Commence with general shaking of heads, gentle readers.

The word is that Schumacher and Kajganich tussled over the script, the director won, and the results were not an improvement. While I'll be watching the finished product with as much interest as anyone, and I always go into any movie predisposed to enjoy myself, I have only this to offer to Joel Schumacher...

Batman and Robin. Karma is a bitch.

I don't remember this one, but it came out when the movie was out in the theater

http://www.horrorsquad.com/2009/09/18/review-blood-creek/

Review: Blood Creek

09.18.09 By: William Goss

Joel Schumacher has a couple of solid films to his credit -- Falling Down, The Lost Boys, Veronica Guerin and a few more -- and even his failures prove to be stylish at the very least (The Number 23, those Batman sequels that shall remain nameless). So what is his name doing on something as skimpy and unremarkable as Blood Creek (a.k.a Town Creek, a.k.a Creek, and not to be confused with this 2006 Canadian horror of the same name), which is being dumped in second-run theaters as we speak?

We open with a black-and-white prologue set in the 1930's, marking Nazi occult expert Michael Fassbender's arrival at a modest West Virginia farm that happens to have a perfectly good rune stone beneath its barn. Cut to present day and switch to color -- EMT Henry Cavill finds himself greeted by his long-lost brother (Dominic Purcell), who disappeared in the woods up around Town Creek and was presumed dead. He's heading back there, definitely with some guns and with or without his brother's help. Cavill gives in and comes with, though what they find up at that farm makes their agreed-upon no-questions-asked policy a hell of a lot harder to abide...

For me to dodge what awaits them would be to make their discovery (and the film) sound spookier than it actually is, so unless you really fear for spoilers of this B-movie with a straight face, proceed ahead...

The brothers find themselves face-to-face with a blood-sucking super-Nazi (still Fassbender) who comes out on the full moon to fulfill some overblown prophecy and -- wouldn't you know it -- rule the Earth. He can command the dead and have them do his bidding, and that includes possessed horses, which only works because the digital effects do, but really, if you're going to draw the line somewhere, wouldn't it be at "blood-sucking super-Nazi"? Purcell and Cavill board themselves in the house while the forever-young Emma Booth encourages them to try all manner of supernatural shenanigans in order to keep the beast at bay. They work as many wonders with the exposition-heavy, humor-light dialogue of David Kajganich's screenplay as they can, and Fassbender is a good sport for almost always appearing in make-up and often mumbling in German.

In fact, everyone here from Fassbender to Purcell to Cavill to Booth to Tigerland vet Shea Whigham would appear to be a good sport for having a hand in this endeavor, this often competent yet never really thrilling outing. Beyond a paycheck, what was the impetus behind going forward with such a project? For the record, it's not the worst thing that anyone involved has done, and clever use is made of both the single location and the limited amount of actors (hint: one can make the most of their body count if they just make sure that a super-Nazi is around to bring his victims back to life). But Schumacher doesn't bring any particular flair to the proceedings, and the film as a whole seems perfectly ripe for a slot in next year's After Dark Horrorfest, where it would inevitably fare better, if only in comparison to some of its kin.

But here Blood Creek is, surely released to satisfy a contractual obligation, and then there it'll go right to DVD shelves, where it'll be glanced over by most and dusted off by only the most curious of genre fans, maybe on a full moon, when all the copies of Wolf Creek have been rented out instead...

http://www.brianorndorf.com/2009/09/film-review-blood-creek.html

September 18, 2009
Film Review - Blood Creek

BLOOD CREEK Purcell

What if Joel Schumacher made a film and nobody cared? No, not “Tigerland,” this time it’s the ominously titled “Blood Creek,” a horror picture that Lionsgate Films (the blue ribbon brand of genre quality) is giving the “Midnight Meat Train” shiv treatment, dumping the film into grubby second-run theaters without a peep of promotion. Keep in mind this is the same company that willingly gave the wretched “Gamer” a 2,500 screen release a few weeks back, so clearly Schumacher must’ve irritated someone of great power to see his movie dumped so unceremoniously.

Those darn Nazis! The Third Reich is up to no good again in Joel Schumacher’s “Blood Creek” (a.k.a. “Town Creek” or simply “Creek”), a splattery horror picture that unites occult madness with a host of odd plot turns, making for more of an arcane sit than a petrifying one. Not a complete wash-out, “Blood Creek” has a few motivated moments of viciousness, but if this is Schumacher returning to his fried “Lost Boys” roots of darkly lit jolts, it’s a misfire, drowning in dreadful camerawork and a cross-eyed screenplay that’s much too literal for comfort.

In 1936, Professor Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbinder, “Inglourious Basterds”), a Nazi occult expert, has made his way to a remote American farm to inspect a mysterious Nordic runestone on the property, testing the rock’s demonic powers of reanimation and mind control. Decades later, Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) is an EMT worker dealing with the disappearance of his war hero brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell, TV’s “Prison Break”). Frayed and bloodied, Victor returns out of the blue one night, begging Evan for help, soon taking off to a familiar farmhouse where he was kept hostage. Hoping to assist Victor and his game plan of revenge, Evan instead finds a frightened German family who cannot age, and a terrifying mutated version of Wirth in the cellar demanding blood. Commencing a night of survival as Wirth terrorizes the house, Evan and Victor find they must learn the true nature of the runestone to effectively fight back.

Kicking off with an expressionistic flashback to Wirth’s arrival on the farm, “Blood Creek” promises style and sense in the early going, launching the story with an eerie bit of exposition that captures an unsettling mood. Considering his recent output, the prologue is perhaps Schumacher’s best work in years, signaling that while bluntly titled, “Blood Creek” isn’t some run of the mill slasher story. Unfortunately, once the cinematography snaps to color, the director loses his equilibrium.

“Blood Creek” aims to be a feral and relentless, and in terms of sheer pace, Schumacher shows some real pep, with the opening 40 minutes of the movie dedicated solely to nail-biting tension, shoving the characters into place as swiftly as possible. However, actually getting an eyeful of the chaos is another story. Abusing hand-held camerawork and cloaking much of the action in unlit environments, the director renders the film a frustrating blur. “Blood Creek” contains some fairly ornate visuals that require more than a passing glance to interpret, but Schumacher is driven to pound the senses with his terror sequences, fervent to create something savage rather than disturbing. The herky-jerky photography grows numbing and useless in no time, and it’s especially disruptive to Wirth’s reign of terror, which includes the possession of horses to help hoof down the good guys. Demonic horses on a kitchen killing spree? Now there’s something to study in amazing screen detail. “Blood Creek” only offers abstract flashes.

The horse sequence is bizarre, but so is Wirth in his modern day form as a Red Skull-like figure who needs his blood and stones to give birth to his (literal) third eye of doom. A string-bean presence running around in a long leather trench coat, Wirth is impossible to take seriously, but Schumacher believes in him, building an impressive display of rage as the madman looks to grow in power. The makeup design on Wirth is marvelous, but the visual effects are lackluster, watering down the character’s threat level and the film’s suspenseful attitude. The whole runestones angle is inventive and easily feeds into promised sequels that will never arrive, but the manifestation of its powers into the human characters looks downright silly. I don’t care how much Karo is spilled here, it’s still an unthreatening actor prancing around in an expensive leather outfit. Obviously this is pretty much catnip to Schumacher.

Select moments of “Blood Creek” pop with expected skill, while the rest of the picture flounders in a strange way, as if the production doesn’t even believe in the nonsense at hand. While hardly Joel Schumacher’s worst hour, “Blood Creek” nevertheless fails to live up to the director’s proven talents as a convincing screen stylist. It’s ugly, raw, and marginally tasteless (“Nazis. I hate these guys.”), so perhaps the irksome inability to clearly see what’s going on is an unintentional gift.


C-

http://movie-freedom.blogspot.com/2010/01/watch-town-creek-2009.html

Friday, January 22, 2010
Watch "Town Creek" (2009)

If you like good "B" movies, particularly "B horror films" ... this is one you'll probably want to watch. Not amazing or great, far better than your average B horror though, definitely kept my attention. First few min are slow and not at all like rest of film, wait it out.

In 1936, the Wollners–a German family living in rural Town Creek, Maryland–are contacted by the Third Reich to host a visiting scholar, Professor Ricard Wirth (Michael Fassbender). In need of money, they accept Wirth into their home. Wirth’s grand occult project seals the Wollners off from the rest of the world and makes them players in a horrifying game of survival.

Now, in 2007, Evan Marshall’s (Henry Cavill) life has stalled at twenty-five years old. Left without answers after his older brother Victor’s (Dominic Purcell) disappearance from a camping trip near Town Creek, he has tried to move on. But when Victor returns one night, very much alive and having escaped his captors, Evan asks no questions–at his brother’s request, he loads their rifles, packs up their boat and follows him back to Town Creek on a mission of revenge that will test them in every possible way…

Joel Schumacher and David Kajganich had a falling out over all the changes Schumacher wanted in the script (not unlike what happened between Schumacher and Andrew Kevin Walker on 8MM (1999)). The director won and re-wrote parts of the script himself.

http://houseinrlyeh.livejournal.com/246985.html

Blood Creek (2009)

aka Town Creek

About two years ago, Victor (Dominic Purcell), the Iraq vet brother of paramedic Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) disappeared during a joint camping trip, leaving his brother guilt-ridden and desperate.

One day, a wildly bearded Victor appears in his brother's trailer, asks him to pack guns and provisions for a two day trip and help him "end something". For no good reason, Evan agrees.

Victor leads him to a farm not that far out in the boons and starts to kill its inhabitants without any hesitation. Evan is not completely on board with committing a massacre, leading to the survival of an older woman (Joy McBrinn) and her daughter Liese (Emma Booth, playing someone who is supposed to look like seventeen and just doesn't).

Turns out that Victor has good reason for hating them, though. The family used him to feed the immortal Nazi occultist Wirth (Michael Fassbender) who came to do evil occultist stuff with a runestone situated on their farm (something to do with opening his third eye) some time during the 30s. While preparing his own immortality Wirth also made the family for no reason I could discern. For his troubles, they locked him away in a cellar secured with magical symbols and only let him out at feeding time. The family didn't really mean any harm with their murdering ways, you see, they feed Wirth only to contain him and hinder him from taking over the world with his awesome powers of waking the dead and looking really silly.

Alas, the good doctor does not like it at all when his dinner is late, breaks out and makes the brothers' evenings a bit more exciting than they probably hoped for with his zombie horses, zombie people and various attempts to drink their blood.

Being directed by Joel Schumacher, this is of course a total mess of a film, but it's a mess that's nice to look at and neither uninteresting nor boring. Again and again, you can see the outline of a really riveting occult horror film behind the silliness of zombie horses, magical bone armor and people acting unlike people. Schumacher wastes some pulpy but neat ideas about rune magic and a theoretically fantastic villain (an immortal Nazi occultist who reminds me of a hyperactive version of Fulci's Dr.Freudstein should be impressive and not this silly) on a film that does not take the necessary time to build the mood or character to make them work. Instead, he just goes for a fast-paced "one damn thing after another" tale that would have worked a lot better done in a slow Italian style, given that everything else about it just screams "Italy 1980".

If you're able to stop thinking about the film's obvious lack of internal logic and can stomach its moral ("killing people for a good cause is a-ok") it can be rather exciting, at least until the next bit of idiocy stops it dead in its tracks again, but then you can have a good laugh.

The Internet - as we know always right - tells me that there is a good reason for the film being as excitingly nonsensical as it is. Schumacher seems to have had some kind of falling out with the film's scriptwriter David Kajganich (ironically also the unlucky guy theoretically responsible for the script to Oliver Hirschbiegel's equally unlucky The Invasion), ending with Schumacher re-writing parts or even large parts of the script, and (at least that's my theory) banishing any hope for a moody and intelligent film to the place where the mood and intelligence his other films should have had are hidden away.

On the visual side, there's not as much to complain about. Schumacher mostly goes for something workmanlike and professional here, far from the excesses he seems to love so much.

The effects work and design is a whole different thing again. There are some very iffy digital effects on display, and worse, the main monster Wirth looks silly where he should be menacing, dressed up like a Matrix reject with bad skin and a German accent.

Still, I can't say I don't like Blood Creek. While it is not the effective horror film it could be, it is an entertaining piece of trash, a classical b-picture made by a classical mercenary director whose ego too always gets into the way of his talent. Plus, you know, zombie horses.

http://thehorrorgeek.com/?p=7368

Blood Creek

Lionsgate has a disturbing new trend happening with their releases. The company’s never been bashful about putting horror movies in theaters, but over the past couple of years they’ve “dumped” some films rather unceremoniously onto a tiny number of screens (to fulfill the theatrical release part of the contract, one would guess) with no promotion and then whisked them away to DVD. In the case of Ryuhei Kitamura’s Midnight Meat Train, this mishandling on Lionsgate’s part sucked. One could make a similar argument for Joel Schumacher’s Blood Creek. Schumacher’s film isn’t as good as Kitamura’s, but it certainly deserved a better fate than what it got.

Schumacher’s a big name filmmaker—so it seems odd that a feature production he’d helmed would wind up showing on roughly 25 screens for a week and then get shuttled off to DVD. Blood Creek isn’t a great film, but it’s certainly a decent enough time-waster for anyone who likes gore and Nazis. It wouldn’t have done much in the theater, but it probably deserved the opportunity to play in wide release anyway.

The film itself (which has been alternately titled Creek and Town Creek at various points) is mish-mash of ideas, some interesting, others not so much. As the film opens, a family of German farmers in West Virginia are being asked to allow a Nazi doctor to stay with them while he continues his research. This doctor, named Wirth (Michael Fassbender) is doing what all movie Nazis do best…occult studies. The family takes him on despite this, wooed by the princely $150 a month stipend they’ll receive from The Fatherland every month for keeping him. We learn that Fassbender’s a bad dude when he demonstrates the supernatural ability to resurrect a dead bird.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Evan (Henry Cavill) is suffering through life because his brother Vic (Dominic Purcell) vanished and is presumed dead. Only, Vic turns up one night two years later and makes Evan come with him to exact bloody revenge on the people who tormented him while everyone thought he was a rotting corpse. If you guess that the tormentors are Wirth and the family from the farm, give yourself a screenwriter’s credit.

There’s more to it than that—including something about Viking symbols and how Wirth never allows the family to die—but that’s the gist. The film is occasionally too complicated for its own good, but screenwriter David Kajganich deserves at least some credit for attempting to give us a story with some substance. It doesn’t always work, but I appreciate the effort.

What does work in Blood Creek is Fassbender. He makes for a creepy Nazi—just big enough to be intimidating, and in the present day setting he has the whole zombie/vampire/monster vibe working for him. The character design is impressive, and the whispered incantations Wirth uses to resurrect the dead sound delightfully creepy.

One of the film’s other saving graces is that it has a surprisingly high body count for a siege film with a limited number of characters. This is bound to happen when your main villain can resurrect the dead, I guess, but the constant carnage in Blood Creek helps smooth over some of the film’s flaws. Oh, and I think I’m required by Horror Geek Law to mention the zombie horse scene. Fassbender kills a horse, brings it back from the dead, then turns it loose inside the house where it trashes everything in sight while our heroes pump round after round of lead into it. Definitely one of the film’s greatest moments.

However, these highs are often countered not so much by lows, but shortcomings. Cavill and Purcell just aren’t very interesting. You get the feeling that Schumacher and company were going for the “Sam and Dean Winchester” vibe from CW’s TV series Supernatural, but they never really capture it. Neither actor is bad, it’s just that their characters aren’t as engaging as they should be—particularly if they’re supposed to be carrying the movie as a whole.

The fact that the story of Blood Creek gets convoluted at some points has been mentioned already, but it’s worth repeating. Sometimes simple is better when it comes to siege movies, and while I admire some of the ingenuity on display and the desire to tell a rip-roaring Nazi occult story, I don’t think Blood Creek ever strikes the balance in a meaningful way.

Finally, Blood Creek relies on a lot of CGI gore and I still don’t think anyone can do computer generated blood right. Some of the FX work in the film is nice. Wirth is suitably icky throughout, looking like a slimy corpse with all kinds of occult symbols carved into his head, but he’s the high point. It often feels like the bulk of the FX budget went to getting Fassbender into character and everything else suffered because of it. Don’t get me wrong—the effects in the film aren’t awful, but there aren’t really any moments where you’ll want to rewind a scene to see it again, either.

That sort of describes Blood Creek as a whole—it’s a serviceable film that benefits from having a director of Schumacher’s caliber behind the camera. There are some lovely shots in the movie—the sepia-toned opening in particular—but none of the things Blood Creek does well are quite enough to outweigh the areas where it struggles. It’s a forgettable film in a lot of ways—you’ll watch it and be entertained on some level, but you’ll have forgotten about it by the next morning.

Horror Geek Rating: 3 out of 5

http://www.avclub.com/articles/blood-creek,37557/

Blood Creek

C
by Noel Murray January 27, 2010

*
Blood Creek

Joel Schumacher has had one of the odder careers in Hollywood history. He entered the business as a costume designer, became a reliable director of youth-oriented comedies and dramas in the ’80s, then had an extended stint as an A-list blockbuster-maker in the ’90s, until the campy, ludicrous Batman & Robin knocked him back down. Since then, Schumacher has been reinventing himself via a string of indie dramas and low-budget thrillers, and over the past decade, he’s become one of the most prolific filmmakers in the business. But his profile has dropped dramatically. Mention Schumacher’s name to even the most ardent movie buffs, and chances are that they won’t be able to name more than one or two of the 10 movies he’s made since temporarily killing the Batman franchise.

The jittery supernatural suspenser Blood Creek isn’t likely to revive Schumacher’s rep. Given a token release last fall before being dumped onto home video, Blood Creek has a crackpot premise that Schumacher renders merely competently, with little of the fervor the material requires. Henry Cavill stars as an EMT who follows his long-missing war-hero brother Dominic Purcell to a remote farm where Purcell was recently imprisoned. There, the brothers find a German immigrant family who’ve been living since the 1930s with an obnoxious houseguest: a Nazi occultist (Michael Fassbender) who uses rune-stones and blood sacrifices to keep himself alive until he can complete his transformation into a super-powered being.

Some of the Nazi’s powers are cool—such as his ability to revive the dead and turn them into raging demon-beasts—and the array of mystic weaponry and bone-garments lying about the farm are all nicely designed. Blood Creek has its giddy what-the-f&#! moments, as when a reincarnated hell-horse storms into the farmhouse, or when the villain drives a metal stake into his head in order to prepare for his Becoming. But after a compelling black-and-white prologue, Blood Creek mostly remains a generic action movie, teasing out mysteries that take too long to pay off. Dave Kajganich’s screenplay is interested in the various ways people make deals with the devil, while Schumacher is interested in finding ways to make a talky script more energetic. Does he construct eye-catching shots, elicit striking performances, or pump up the oddity? No, he mainly bathes scenes in monochrome mood lighting and has his actors deliver dialogue while shouting and shoving. Ah… the Schumacher touch.

Key features: The director delivers a commentary track surprisingly heavy on historical context. If nothing else, the man is an exceptional host.

http://horrorfilms.suite101.com/article.cfm/film-review---blood-creek-2009

Film Review - Blood Creek (2009)
A Bloodthirsty Nazi Necromancer Let Loose in West Virginia

Feb 14, 2010 Anthony Sin
Formerly known as "Town Creek", this low-budget horror film throws many different ingredients in the mix but the results tend toward the mediocre.

Joel Schumacher is not easily pigeonholed. The costume designer-turned-director has tried his hand at many different types of stories, which has led to his making films as varied as Batman and Robin, A Time to Kill, and Tigerland. His most recent offering, Blood Creek, marks his return to horror.

One Part Nazi, One Part Occultist

The story begins in the mid-1930s on a farm in West Virginia owned by the Wollners, an expatriate German family. When the Third Reich offers a sum of money to them to put up a historian while he does research in the area, the Wollners welcome into their midst one Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender). In short order, Wirth reveals his interest in a large rune stone around which the family built their barn as well as his remarkable ability to reanimate the dead.

Flash forward to present day where paramedic Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) struggles through a day-to-day existence in the shadow of a brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell), who mysteriously disappeared while the two were on a fishing trip. Just as Evan loses hope of finding Victor alive, his brother reappears one evening, pleading with Evan to gather ammunition and return to site of his disappearance. Evan agrees and finds himself at the farmhouse where Victor was held captive and tortured. The Marshall brothers manage to secure the house and the family that occupies it, but in the process unleash Wirth, who is now a decades-old necromancer with insatiable bloodlust.

Fast and Furious

The plot certainly sounds like it comes from a low-rent horror flick, but Schumacher makes it work. Once he gets the brothers and the Wollners together inside the farmhouse, the director moves things along at a brisk pace by having the occupants attacked in varying ways, not the least of which are by reanimated corpses and an undead horse.

Those with sensitivities towards animals coming to harm should note that Blood Creek has its share of canine and farm animal casualties. While the camera does not dwell on the violence, the suggested imagery is rather effective and ill-suited for animal lovers.

As for the look of the film, Blood Creek actually looks quite polished despite the production's limited budget. This is truly a testament to the abilities of Schumacher and cinematographer Darko Suvak.

Decent Performances

The acting, meanwhile, will not be on the Academy's radar when awards season rolls around, but it is by no means poor. Cavill and Purcell are fairly solid in their respective roles despite a lack of character development. Cavill's Evan comes off slightly more well-rounded than his on-screen brother as we see more of what motivates him: for example, his job as a paramedic makes him rather determined to free another of the Wollners' captors before he proceeds with Victor's plans.

Fassbender's Wirth is sufficiently menacing even under heavy make-up. His restraint in playing the role aids the movie considerably as an over-the-top performance would have reduced Blood Creek to utter schlockdom.

Script Problems

Despite the positive aspects of the film, Blood Creek is undeniably a flawed movie, let down by gaps in logic. There is no shortage of online speculation about how Schumacher had major disagreements with writer David Kajganich, leading the director to do rewrites himself. Also rumoured is that Lionsgate ordered the movie to be cut from 111 minutes to 90. Whatever the case, the writing in the final cut is a definite weak spot in an otherwise decent horror film.

Despite not fulfilling its ambitions, Blood Creek is still worth seeing if you are a fan of horror. Casual moviegoers, though, should give it a miss.

http://hagiblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/blood-creek-town-creek-film-reel-reviews/

Blood Creek (Town Creek) – Film Reel Reviews
1 03 2010

A slightly better than average horror flick – Will

When Evan’s brother shows up at his door after being missing for two years, he drags Evan into a revenge mission involving an experiment from the early days of the Third Reich.

Directed by – Joel Schumacher

Written by – David Kajganich

Starring – Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell, Emma Booth, Michael Fassbender, Rainer Winkelvoss, Laszlo Matray, Joy McBrinn, Shea Whigham, Tony Barger, Gerard McSorley

This wound up being the second of three movies I checked out yesterday and I’m glad it was in the middle. It’s just that kind of movie where it fits perfectly somewhere between good and bad. It helps that it has an evil, immortal Nazi in it and Henry Cavill as Evan in the movie also made this one a bit better than a typical horror flick.

Evan’s brother Victor went missing 2 years ago while he was out in the forest with Evan. Evan’s dad seems to blame him for not finding Victor and Evan is a little pissed off that Victor went off to Iraq when that’s what he was planning to do. When Victor shows up and demands that Evan come with him, Evan wastes no time in helping his brother. It seems that Victor was being held by a family in a remote farm where they were feeding him to something. That something just happens to be a Nazi who has learned the secrets of immortality.

Henry Cavill as Evan was quite good in the movie. And he takes his shirt off for all the ladies!

The relationship between Evan and Victor was well written and is one of the more interesting aspects of the film, almost overshadowing any other plot point. Evan seems jealous and resentful of Victor but is still willing to do anything for his brother. While Victor is the one that everyone thinks so highly of, he actually seems to be the one who is envious of his brother. It was a little out there that Victor could show up in the middle of the night after being missing for two years and convince his brother to follow him without telling him anything and it annoyed me that Evan takes a long time before he really questions what is happening. Had the performances been worse than it would have been unforgivable.

Of course the movie is about an immortal Nazi so I can’t forget him. He was a great villain and looked quite creepy. Kind of like a jacked up Voldemort with scars all over his head. He’s smart, evil and has immense power and the two brothers must stop him before the lunar eclipse where his power will become unstoppable. Why do these things always have to coincide with some odd lunar or solar event that just happens to be on the very night that our heros are out to get the bad guy?

This was much better than I had expected. It’s well written and has a great bad guy. There’s some good amounts of gore in it and the story has a nice horror ending to it. The kind that sets up any sequel the filmmakers may be thinking of. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing a continuation of this storyline but this one film is probably good enough. It’s not going to blow anyone away and certainly doesn’t turn the genre on its head but it’s a fun little movie. At least Schumacher didn’t fill it with neon and give everyone rubber nipples. For that, I’ll give it the passing grade. When you’ve got a few hours of free time, check this one out.

Under the marquee – Will

http://explodingheads-jonahhex.blogspot.com/2010/03/blood-creek.html?zx=7f7829d378af4b6d

Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Blood Creek


Blood Creek 2009
Director: Joel Schumacher
Writer: David Kaiganich
Starring Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Emma Booth, Michael Fassbender, Rainer Winkelvoss, Lazlo Matray, Joy McBrinn, Shea Whigham and Tony Barger

It has been awhile since I have enjoyed a Joel Schumacher film like this. This is by far his best film I have seen since 8 MM. It is a high concept horror film and it almost makes me forgive the travesty that was Batman and Robin. It combines a action film with a scenario much like the Evil Dead and does it tremendously well. Any film that uses a Nazi built monster always piques my interest and the monster in Blood creek is very creative and imaginative. This is a film that builds up the tension with each scene and it has a tremendously well played villain in the persona of Fassbender. He is sleazily evil and somehow, also very charismatic. Purcell as usual brings his A game to the film and it is always a delight to see him kicking ass. This film uses the mythology of Nordic Rune stones and Wampyres to excellent effect and really makes this tale into a rousing horror adventure.

The plot basics are this, in 1936 the Wollner's a German family farming in the rural United States are asked to accommodate a boarder from the homeland. Richard Wirth (Fassbender), who they soon discover is a occult scientist for the Third Reich, and they find they will have a high price to pay for accommodating Wirth. We then flash forward to the modern day, where we meet Evan (Cavill), who has been taking care of his invalid father since his older brother Victor (Purcell) disappeared on a fishing trip over 2 years ago. One night Victor returns looking like a mountain man and asking for weapons and for him to help him hunt down something. They go to the farm where Wirth came to live all those years ago and finds the Wollner family as they were left in the 30's as if frozen in time. Victor wants payback for the torture that was inflicted on him and what he finds is far worse than he ever expected. They have unleashed a unspeakable evil and now this night will test them in ways they cannot possibly fathom.

This is a surprisingly solid action horror film. Schumacher sets the stage well with his direction of the opening scene in the 30's and then flash forwards to the present and does not let go of the throttle of the film till the ending. He stages the action sequences well and they all move at a heartbreak pace. The film has a deliberate claustrophobic fell that really works in it's faver. The script is quite good. The use of Nordic mythology and Wampyres really makes the film an original piece, in this day and age of remakes and PG-13 horror films. The cast is quite good. Cavill makes a excellent hero, who has no idea what kind of night he is entering into. Purcell, as always is a excellent action hero who really brings a intensity to his performance. Fassbender as the demonic Wirth, is a great charismatic villain that I never got enough of. Booth as Liese, the girl that begins the tale is very good, she is mysterious and very sympathetic. The SFX and effects of the film are quite outstanding. Ken Neiderbaumer does excellent work, especially during the transformation scene to Wirth's final metamorphosis. THis is a film that is a treasure trove of fun elements for the horror film fan and well worth seeking out.
This one gets 4 out of 5

http://thehorrorjournal.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/blood-creek2010/


Blood Creek(2010).

March 10, 2010 in Occult, Zombies | Tags: dominic purcell, emma booth, lynn colins

“I was worried ’cause the Batman Nipple guy was directing this film. I was surprised indeed!”

http://screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/blood-creek-poster.jpg

Director: Joel Schmaucher.

Cast: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Emma Booth, Michael Fassbender, Lynn Collins.

What’s It About

Apparently, Hitler had a thing for the power of Occult. He sent scholars searching for rune stones which apparently holds the power of immortality and they believed will help them win the war. But unfortunately the war started before the progress, and those scholars got stuck where they were and the place got buried in time(metaphorically). Then we see a guy working his ass off, and comes home to get his ass bullied by his sick father, this is exactly what’s wrong with parents. Anyways, we get to know that, 2 years earlier his brother got kidnapped/lost when they were camping together. He regrets this everyday of his life. Fortunately, all of a sudden, at night, his brother returns looking like what Joaquin Phoenix looks like now but with longer and faker beard. Oh and all dirty. So, he tells him nothing except to load guns and ammos to get revenge on those Nazi fuckers who kept him hostage all along. And as they do, chaos ensues.

The Pros

Okay seriously, I’m giving you some words. Occult, Nazi, Zombie, Necromancy, Gore. If you think any one of these words is cool then you are up for a real good time. I loved those zombie horses. And the bad guy, he was so badass.

This movie is really sophisticated. And I loved that. It is…like…something you have a chance of respecting. Okay, I give up explaining what I mean but you get the point right?

It’s a straight-to-DVD film so you cannot expect very good acting, right? This is where it surprised me. I loved the acting of all the actors which is sort of rare these days.

Gore. Holy s$#! the gore was awesome. It wasn’t all random and still managed to be fun. And I have a thing for shotgun-violence and there is PLENTY OF IT HERE!

The Cons

The plot-line is a little too rushed which may be the reason why it got a little boring while I was watching it for the second time.

Overall

It’s one of these campy-good time movies. ‘Think less and enjoy more’ mentality will help you LOVE this film. I’ll go with a B+.

http://blog.redbox.com/redblog/2010/03/saturday-night-drivein-blood-creek.html

March 13, 2010
Saturday Night Drive-In: Blood Creek
Blood Creek is no overlooked horror gem, but it does have enough weird tricks up its black-leather sleeve (Nazi occultists! Undead horses! The director of Batman & Robin!) to make it a plenty decent Drive-In diversion.

BloodCreek_3073 Every fan of cheesy horror films knows that as unlikable as Nazis were in real-life, they automatically make any horror or action film better. They’re like the candy sprinkles of bad cinema. (Ironically, this works in reverse for dramatic films: the more Nazis, the more ponderous and self-important the dramatic film. But then I’m the guy who thought Schindler’s List needed more killer dinosaurs.) Look at all the good things just recently from adding Nazis: Nazis and zombies? Dead Snow! Nazis and Quentin Tarantino? Inglourious Basterds! Nazis and illiteracy? The Reader! (And an Oscar!)

The horror film Blood Creek only has one Nazi, but he makes up for it by being a Nazi occultist. Because as anyone who has seen the good Indiana Jones movies knows, the Nazis were all about the occult. (And zeppelins. Boy, the Nazis loved them some zeppelin. Alas, stupid hydrogen. Stupid static electricity.)

Blood Creek is also known as Town Creek, but then someone realized it had no town, but did have lots of blood. Actually, it doesn't have much of a creek either, but Blood Ditch lacks that American Gothic ring. Whatever you call the movie, it opens back in the late ‘30s on a West Virginia farm-- we know it’s yesteryear because it’s in black and white, as was all the past. The farm’s German-American owners welcome a handsome Nazi occultist who shows up to take control of an ancient runestone left behind by the Vikings. (You know, those Vikings who discovered West Virginia.) Now before you get too excited, Blood Creek is not about Nazis fighting Vikings. But let’s all stop for a moment and think how unbelievably great that movie would be. Okay, come back now—we have to finish talking about Blood Creek.

Blood creek fassbender It turns out the runestone can extend life, or bring the dead back to life, or maybe help create zeppelins that don’t blow up every time someone walks across a shag carpet in stocking feet. And it turns out the Nazi occultist is played by the very talented German-Irish actor Micheal Fassbender who played a British spy pretending to be a German officer in Inglourious Basterds. (He’s the one who asks for three scotches the wrong way.) I’ve written before about how it is the right, nay the duty of all talented British and Irish actors to occasionally take roles in cheesy horror films, so Fassbender is just holding up his end of the bargain.

But that’s not all, because while Blood Creek sometimes feels like something straight from the Uwe Boll oeuvre, it was directed by none other than Joel Schumacher. No, there are not two Joel Schumachers out there—this is the same one who directed St. Elmo’s Fire, Lost Boys, Flatliners, and both Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Since Schumacher single-handedly knocked the lucrative first Batman franchise into a coma by putting nipples on the Batsuit he’s been doing a bit of cinematic penance, making smaller, grittier, hand-held films. And some of them are quite good: Tigerland and Phone Booth are two of Colin Farrell’s earliest American films and they’re both pretty sharp. Those Farrell films earned Schumacher a second chance to make bigger budget films again. So he made The Phantom of the Opera and Number 23 with Jim Carrey. Oopsies. Back to the bottom of the budget you go, Mr. S!

As you watch Blood Creek you may have more questions. For instance, soon after introducing the Nazi occultist in the ’30s, the movie jumps ahead to present day. There we meet a paramedic whose brother was in Iraq, but big bro has been missing for years, except he shows back up in the middle of the night, so the two brothers have to run off into the woods to get revenge on the farmers who keep the other brother captive for those years. Trust me, it makes a lot less sense on screen than that paragraph I just wrote. But hang in there—the first third of Blood Creek is a narrative boondoggle, but it does get better. No, undead Vikings do not show up to fight Nazis. Just forget about the Vikings, okay?

Blood-Creek-1 Once the brothers get to the farm, Blood Creek veers off into Crazy Horror-Film Plot Stuff. There are curses, and rituals and dark magic rules, and something about a third eye and crossing over and armor made from a skeleton. And there are other people chained up in barns and basements, and the original German-American farm family from the black & white prologue is still alive.

Also still alive, or undead, or “please check ‘other’” is the Nazi occultist, except now he’s no longer handsome and is locked in the cellar. Of course the brothers accidentally free him. Because no one really wants to watch a movie called Nazi Occultist Stays Locked in a Cellar. So the brothers find themselves trapped in the farmhouse with the family they came to kill. (Older brother is Dominic Purcell, not making much of a stretch from playing the incarcerated older brother on Prison Break—just replace Prison Break’s Wentwood Miller with Henry Cavill and the prison guards with undead Nazi occultists.)

Blood Creek doesn’t make a lot more sense with undead Nazi occultist out of the cellar, but it’s a lot more fun. His head is wrapped in burlap or others' flesh or tater skins or something (perhaps because Mr. Fassbender’s agent found a loophole that got him out of appearing in the rest of the film) and he’s wearing the coolest in long, leather Nazi coats. And one of his first acts is to kill a horse and then reanimate and ride it—I’m not joking, there are some striking, effective visuals of the Nazi occultist making all the horses run in circles around the farm house as he gallops menacingly among them. It’s like a Nazi rodeo.

Blood-creek-3 Nazi occultist (who may or may not still be Michael Fassbender) sends some of his undead minions to attack the farmhouse, including his undead horse (which is almost as awesomely unnerving as it sounds). Even without much of a budget or a script, Schumacher is still a decent enough visual stylist, especially when it comes to splashing the red stuff around. In fact, Blood Creek has an almost fascinating herky jerky quality to it: Sometimes it drags and seems utterly lost in bad-scriptland, and then just when you’ve decided to write it off, Schumacher pulls out a creepy image, a cool horror gag, or just a nice, gory kill scene.

All of this—the involvement of Schumacher and Fassbender, the Makes No Sense But Who Cares rules and plot, the self-inflicted-spike-to-the-forehead-zaniness (no really, Klaus von StruckerNazi actually sticks a spike in his own forehead to make a third eye; worst Lasik surgery ever), and of course just the presence of a Nazi occultist—makes Blood Creek a halfway watchable misfire. Besides, if enough people see it and kinda get a kick out of it, then we might get a Blood Creek 2. And we all know what that means. Bring on the undead Vikings!

http://anythinghorror.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/30-second-review-blood-creek-2009/

30 Second Review: Blood Creek (2009)

Here is the first line of the movie cited by a voiceover:

In the early ’30s, Adolf Hitler and his inner circle became obsessed with the occult, believing that the black arts were key to their plan for world domination. Nazi agents travelled the globe in search of ancient Nordic relics known as rune stones. They believed if they harnessed the power of these stones, nothing could stop the march of the Master Race. The symbols inscribed in these stones were said to describe the path… to immortality.

And there you have the entire plot of this movie in a nutshell conveniently outlined in the opening seconds of this film. At least now if you don’t like the plot you can save yourself 90 minutes!!

This is an odd little flick: It has a very B-movie plot, an A-list director attached to it, and it has some pretty good gory scenes in it. Besides the above opening “mystery killer” narrative, the story is about Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) who won’t rest until he finds out what happened to his brother Victor (Dominic Purcell), who disappeared one night while they were on a camping trip. Not knowing what happened to Victor is driving Evan crazy. Then one night Victor shows up, bloody, telling Evan he escaped from his tormentors. Victory grabs some stuff, including a gun, and along with Evan goes back to the captors to exact some revenge (sounds a little Martyr-ish, don’t you think??). When they get to the farmhouse there’s a family there who has basically stopped aging due to the occult experiments done there by a Nazi Occultist, Professor Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender) back in 1936. And now Wirth is immortal who holds the family as slaves in order to feed his hunger and stay immortal. Yeah, the script is kinda all over the place.

He's about to have a bad day!!

So who is the A-list director helming this? No other than Joel Schumacher. You know him from killing the 1990’s Batman franchise with his Batman Forever (1995) andBatman & Robin (1997) flicks, and for the huge misfire The Number 23 (2007). But he also directed the 1999 disturbing thriller 8mm and of course 1987’s The Lost Boys(not my favorite but it was a fun movie). So what the hell is up with Blood Creek? Where does this fall in Schumacher’s canon of films? Well; somewhere in the middle between “fucking retarded” and “it’s not too bad of a film”.

As mentioned above, the occultist Wirth is now an immortal,

Pretty badass-looking creature!!

demon-looking thing that needs to drink blood to stay alive. Yeah you read that right. This is the main problem with this flick: It’s all over the place and feels very unfocused!! The script had some last minute re-writes that writer David Kajganich didn’t seem to like. This led to a falling out between him and Schumacher. (It seems history repeated itself because Schumacher had a falling out with the writer of 8mm as well). In the end Schumacher got his way and did the re-writes he wanted. You can feel this in the movie; you can feel the tacked-on scenes that were added on at the last minute.

Wait til he sees what's standing behind him!!

But besides script and plot problems I have to say that overall the movie was pretty enjoyable. I know, weird right? There was some nicely executed f/x, one of my favorites being the resurrected horse with the slit throat running around. You could see inside the wound and the chunks of meat hanging off the throat as the horse ran around on a rampage. And the make-up on the immortal Wirth was also very well done. There’s definitely enough here to recommend and I think you’ll have a fun time; just don’t look to have everything in the script tie-up into a nice tight bundle.

Director Joel Schumacher

My Summary:

Director: Joel Schumacher

Plot: 2 out of 5 stars

Gore: 5 out of 10 skulls

Zombie Mayhem: 0 out of 5 brains (Wirth was almost a zombie, but not really)

Reviewed by Scott Shoyer

http://www.moviesmademe.com/movie/review/2254

Blood Creek (2008)
Credits Trailer
DVD Cover (Lions Gate)
Director: Joel Schumacher
Starring: Henry Cavill
Dominic Purcell
Emma Booth
Michael Fassbender
Rainer Winkelvoss
Genres: Horror
Naziploitation
Supernatural Horror
Vampire Film
Release Dates
Original: May 14, 2008
Theatrical: September 18, 2009
DVD: January 19, 2010
Country: USA
Distributor: Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Added: March 17, 2010
Judging by the trailer, what we have here is a slasher movie about an occultist Nazi vampire terrorizing a small farm with the use of black magic, bare handed brutality, and undead minions. How could this possibly go wrong? Potential answer: directed and partially written by Joel Schumacher. With this in mind, I was fully aware that this could go either way, despite how amazing that trailer was.

In 1936, in West Virginia, the Wollner family, who has immigrated from Germany, receives a letter from the Nazi party. They would like them to house a historian named Richard Wirth who has business in the states, for substantial monetary compensation, of course. When he gets there, his intentions are quickly shown to be much more mysterious, as he shows great interest in the runestone in the basement and has the ability to bring a dead bird back to life. Jump to present day, and Evan Marshall's life basically sucks. He works fifteen hour shifts as an EMT, and spends what little free time he has tending to his abusive, Alzheimer-stricken father and being a father figure to his brother's two kids after he was abducted on a fishing trip two years ago. One night, his brother, Victor, suddenly reappears out of the blue, looking quite the worse for wear. He asks his brother to immediately get the boat and the guns, and accompany him upriver without telling anyone that he's back. Obviously, he has revenge on his mind. They eventually come across a familiar farm house, where the two take the Wollners hostage and rescue a tortured man from a nearby trailer. Throughout the entire siege, Victor has been demanding to know "where he is", and he gets his answer when he inadvertently breaks the door to the fruit cellar. A significantly more demonic Wirth emerges, and Marshall and Wollner suddenly find themselves barred inside the house, which is protected by runes painted on the doors and windows. Liese Wollner explains that Wirth has frozen them in time and he's on the hunt for human blood to complete the ritual he started so long ago. And even though he can't enter the house, his reanimated corpses have no such issues.

Hapless victims fighting for survival while trapped inside a house has certainly proven it can work in horror. In fact, I'm sure I could link every word in that sentence to a different movie that did it effectively. Well, Joel Schumacher did not do it effectively with Blood Creek. You see, the key to making that work is to convey the claustrophobia inherit in the situation. It's how a movie about people trapped in a car has gotten as many good reviews as it has. Schumacher does not capture this claustrophobia. Instead, he's utilized an almost action movie pace, and the focus is on scenes like zombie horses breaking through the windows; which isn't necessarily a bad decision in and of itself. On the contrary actually, this horse going buck wild in the kitchen and taking gunshot after gunshot was a damned fine scene. Unfortunately, it was kind of ruined by some seriously shoddy special effects. The blood was obviously computer generated, and while I've seen much worse, it was still pretty bad. The true coup de grace was the CGI flames, which did not a thing like actual fire. Similarly, there's a scene where Wirth starts ripping the skin off of his face done with CGI that looks nothing short of horrible. Latex and puppetry would have looked leagues better than the computer did. Sure, I realize that actually setting a horse's head on fire may not exactly be a feasible option, but that's no reason to half ass the effects.

For all the problems the film does have, the assembled group of actors was not one of them. Evan and Victor was handled by Henry Cavill and Dominic Purcell respectively. Cavill garnered no complaints, but he was handedly outshone by Purcell, who I could see going on to become a well known action star. Likewise, our most heavily featured Wollner, daughter Liese, was played by Emma Booth and she also put on a more than acceptable performance. Granted, trying to pass the 28 year old Booth as a 17 year old was an absolutely ridiculous decision, but that's Schumacher's dropped ball, not hers. Richard Wirth didn't have much of a speaking role, but Michael Fassbender (who ironically played a member of the English army in Inglorious Basterds) played the role to perfection. Even though a bigger build certainly wouldn't have hurt, he was still a thoroughly intimidating character, even in the 1936 flashbacks. The only thing that bothered me was the echo effect they added to his voice; it would have been much better if they had stuck to the raspy whispering he used while reanimating various corpses, but again, that finger is pointed at the powers that be.

As I alluded to above, the plot moves along at a breakneck pace, which keeps things moving, but doesn't give enough time to explain what's really going on with this cursed family and their unwanted houseguest. In fact, it just creates a multitude of plotholes that really weighs things down. Normally, I have absolutely no problem ignoring them in these types of movies. For example, they display the Swastika as being from Norse origin, when it's common knowledge that it's an Asian symbol. It's completely wrong, but nothing more than a slight annoyance for the more OCD of its viewers and no severe harm is done. However, the ones I'm referring to were so large you could drive a Panzer through them, and it derails the whole affair. They happen pretty late in the film, so while I hate to talk about them, they affected my opinion of the movie so much that I can't just gloss over them. If you're worried about spoilers, go ahead and skip this paragraph. Anyway, it's explained that Wirth was getting his supply of blood from the family to sustain him and fuel his rituals. In order to protect themselves, they locked him in the fruit cellar, started kidnapping people, and would release him at night to feed on just enough blood before locking him up again for the previous day. How about, oh I don't know, just leaving him locked in there? Why are you feeding him at all? Just let him starve. With such an obvious option available, this revelation really knocked the whole movie on its ass. My suspension of disbelief is one of the strongest you'll ever come across, but even I absolutely refused to swallow such an inane plot point. A significantly more minor plothole comes after the new victim bites it. When Wirth reanimates him, he keeps his identity intact long enough to ask to be locked up. How is he able to do that when the other guy immediately jumps up and attacks his family seconds after being stabbed? Doesn't matter. There was too much between him dying and when he was needed later, and they have to think of something to occupy his time until then. And speaking of, why would you lock him up and not just kill him outright? When you're entering the realm of the occult and rituals like this, you're going to need some decent meat on that plot to move things along without running the whole ordeal into a pit. "Just because" may work in the Jason movies, but not in this one; certainly not to that extreme.

Turns out I was 100% warranted in questioning Blood Creek due to Schumacher's involvement. The potential to be great was there, damn was it there, but all those plotholes and crappy CGI ultimately killed it for me. Still, Wirth himself is quite the villain, and there's enough carnage to keep things entertaining enough. Might be worth a Netflix slot or catching on cable, but I doubt it'll find a permanent home on too many living room shelves. 6/10.

http://midnightmonstershow.com/?p=818

Blood Creek
April 17th, 2010 | Author: Captain Midnight

They'll get screwed over by Reader's Digest too

Pre-ramble:

It’s a historical fact: Nazis are the world’s worst house guests. If you don’t believe me, just ask Poland. The Nazis came to visit in 1939, and in spite of Poland dropping subtle hints such as yawning or repeatedly saying things like “Oh my, would you look at the time” or “It’s been really great seeing you, but I have to be up early tomorrow” the Nazis stayed until 1945. Rudeness! Murder, destruction, and genocide aren’t good enough for them either. The Nazis also made a big mess in the bathroom!

While the Nazis are terrible guests, they make excellent movie villains, which brings us to Blood Creek. Ancient magic rune stones, sinister occult happenings and a creepy Nazi house guest all come together in this overlooked cautionary tale directed by Joel Schumacher.

The Skinny:

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue – it’s true. What is only slightly less well known is that about 500 years before that there were Norse voyages of discovery sent to the New World. In Blood Creek, we are told that Scandinavian explorers made it as far inland as West Virginia and southern Ohio, bringing their magic rune stones with them. I used to live in that part of the country. I have no problem imagining that an evil occult force would roost there, after all, Billy Ray Cyrus was born in that region. I do have a hard time imagining Vikings hauling a bunch of two ton stones along with their boats over the Appalachian Mountains. Maybe they really are supermen?

The Nazis find out about these stones and figure their Germanic Viking ancestors were on to something big. Not shy about allocating resources to explore any spooky silliness in their relentless thirst for power, and still smarting over losing the Ark of the Covenant to Indiana Jones, the Nazis send out expert Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender), to stay with the Wollner’s on their farm in West Virginia, where one of these stones is located. Wirth is more than your typical creepy Hollywood Nazi bad guy. He’s into the occult in a big way. He has stacks of scary forbidden books and box with human bones. He’s also tapped into the mystical powers of the blood. What does that mean? It means he needs blood to do mystical Nazi things and this going to be very bad for anyone who crosses his path.

From ominous words of blood to literal jets of crimson, we flash forward to modern day West Virginia. Paramedic Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) and his partner are trying to keep a gunshot victim from bleeding out in his own front lawn while a screaming, gun wielding, drug-addled woman staggers about the yard totally oblivious to the police, who have drawn their own guns and are yelling at her to drop her weapon. Evan, is completely focused on the wounded man, ignoring the very real possibilities that Meth-head Sue might blast a hole in his skull and use it as a place to put her stash.

In short order we learn that Evan’s older brother, Victor Marshall, is a war hero. Shortly after his return from Iraq when missing while on a fishing trip with Evan. It’s been two years since Victor disappeared and Evan has stepped up to help take care of his two nephews. Evan also takes care of his senile and invalid Father, which is made even less fun as Old Marshall blames Evan for Victor’s disappearance and he spares not a moment of day from shoveling piles of wrath at his remaining son. Evan takes it all in stride, perhaps as penance for the sin of being the one who lived? Evan is clearly defined as brave and selfless. There is a little interesting contrast that comes into play.

After returning home from a long day, Evan finds his brother Victor alive and sitting in his little trailer. All is not yet well. Victor needs Evan to return with him to Town Creek and help him stop the evil that held him captive for the last two years. Supernatural Nazi horror fun ensues.

What can I say? For me, any movies that start out with a kooky occult plot by Nazis to win the war, build a super weapon or bring Hitler back from the grave instantly gets a point in its favor. Maybe it’s because, unlike any other war, World War II was the most clear cut historical battle against evil and it was fought on an epic scale — the whole world. I think that because of this, there is a multiplier effect. A villain is twice as evil if he or she is a Nazi on top being whatever else he or she is. That’s why in Star Wars, storm troopers are called “storm troopers” rather than just “troopers” and Darth Vader is made to look like a SS soldier wearing a gas mask. Lucas was not so subtly painting the Empire as Nazis. It worked in Star Wars and it works in Blood Creek.

There isn’t too much to say about the acting. Michael Fassbender is deliciously evil as Nazi academic turned Nazi monster. Henry Cavill and Dominic Purcell fit into their respective hero roles neatly. Emma Booth and the remainder of the cast all play their parts competently, making their characters believable even though the script is a little spare on character development for the ancillary roles. I found the story and characters to be compelling enough, the dialogue, while not riveting, is appropriate to the movie. As in any good story the outcome should result in the characters developing from the experience and that happens here.

The stage is all set and the main characters are defined with economy within the first twenty minutes or so before moving at a good pace, with occasional brief pauses to begin to ratchet up the tension again. There are even a couple of scenes that were surprising and uniquely horrible in a good way. I’d be less vague but I don’t want to spoil the surprise. In short, there are no boring parts. Whatever Joel Schumacher’s past sins are as a director, he comes through with a winner here.

The visual effects went way beyond my expectations, which I admit were pretty much nil considering that this film had no marketing or support of any kind for distribution. There was absolutely no word of mouth buzz among the internet fanboys. Blood Creek was ninja-like, moving silently and unseen into DVD obscurity. Sigh. Blood Creek is much too good a movie to meet that kind fate.

Blood Creek is also known as Town Creek.

Staring:

Michael Fassbender
Henry Cavill
Dominic Purcell
Emma Booth

Screenplay:
David Kajganich

Director:
Joel Schumacher

Three out of five Vincents

http://btsjunkie.com/2010/04/09/blood-creek-2009/

BLOOD CREEK (2009)

Watched: 4/9/2010

It’s when I finally see a movie like that was so elusive upon initial release that I really hate the movie distributors in this country. Some of the s$#! that gets dumped into theaters is beyond me yet something like this get passed over like it’s complete s$#!. And s$#! it is not.

The Third Reich is interested in some stones that reside on some farming properties in the US. One particular family, the Wollners, are visited by one Nazi Professor (played by Michael Fassbender). 70 some years later, Evan is wondering where his older brother Victor has gone. When Victor returns he convinces Evan to go to the Wollner farm where the Nazi presence, and the Wollners, is still very much alive. Terrifying secrets are revealed.

Yeah, so the short synopsis (at least as I’ve written it in my rush to get caught up on my blog) isn’t terribly interesting. But you know how they could have marketed this movie: FLAMING NAZI ZOMBIE HORSE! Yeah, you read that right. I’m not going to say any more about this.

The thing about this movie is that the script is pretty dumb. Dumb characters, dumb situations, dumb dialogue. However, in the hands of Joel Schumacher (?! I know, right!), none of it matters because the sights and sounds are top notch. The movie is EXCITING. You don’t have time to dwell on the idiotic script. Great gore, great Nazi s$#!, etc. It’s a quick, dirty, messy, fun horror flick and it’s a f#%@#&! travesty it’s been shat on. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

Buy BLOOD CREEK on DVD here!

http://twinsofevil.blogspot.com/2010/05/thats-bingooooo.html

May 25, 2010
That's a Bingooooo

Blood Creek (2009)


PLOT: A man and his brother on a mission of revenge become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment dating back to the Third Reich.

MY TAKE: Joel Schumacher is a sadist of the highest order. Don't believe me? Watch Batman & Robin. It is a relentless, technicolor onslaught of latex and shame, designed with precision to make your soul cry. And if that wasn't bad enough, he made TWO of those stinkers. Still for all of his crimes against humanity, every once in a while Joel s$@%$! out a gem. 1993's Falling Down is nothing short of genius, and there's not a horror film fan alive who doesn't worship at the alter of The Lost Boys. While his latest film -- Blood Creek -- is no masterpiece, it's one hell of decent effort. So perhaps Joel Shumacher isn't the Devil after all. But at the very least he's a man with a certain gift for human misery.

Bring on the pain!

A short and unnerving bit of back story kicks off the film. It's 1936, West Virginia. A family of German immigrants are alarmed when a letter arrives from their Nazi-occupied motherland. It informs them that they have been chosen to host a visiting Third Reich scholar as he conducts research in the area. No sooner is the letter read than the man himself arrives, strolling intrusively into their home and upstaging everyone on-screen. Michael Fassbender is an actor that exudes a sinister-yet-sexy kind of charisma. He charms while he terrifies! Broad-shouldered, tall, powerful, leather-clad and speaking GERMAN? You just don't f&#! with a guy like that. So when the mysterious Mr. Wirth demands to know where the family has hidden a certain "rune stone" they quickly comply...

Like all good Nazis, he's in black and white.

Present day -- we meet young Evan Marshall: over-worked paramedic, under-appreciated son, outrageously good-looking actor. He goes through the motions putting in 14-hour shifts saving lives before coming home to look after his elderly father, suffering from dementia. Or, rather, selective dementia. All dear old dad can manage to remember are the times when Evan disappointed him. He yells at him. He scowls at him. He blames Evan for the disappearance of his older brother, Victor. It's all poor, frazzled (over-worked, under-appreciated, outrageously good-looking) Evan can do to remind his dad gently that he loves him, before passing out. Yet, even asleep, there's no rest for Evan. He's haunted by nightmares of the fateful camping trip when his brother vanished, over two years ago. Guilt-ridden and ragged, he carries on.

Poor Evan. Soooooooo handsome.

Until -- that is -- Victor suddenly appears in the middle of the night, shaking Evan awake. There's no time for freak-outs or reunions, because before Evan knows what's happening, he has been ordered to gather up guns and ammo: they're driving off by moonlight on a mission of revenge. Overcome with joy and concern, the conflicted younger brother does as he's told, hoping their will be time for questions later. But as the sun rises -- and the two men find themselves silently canoeing up-river into the West Virginian wilderness -- Evan only has to see the bloodied restraint wounds on Victor's wrists to know they're out for vengeance.

The two brothers arrive at an isolated (familiar!) country farm. But before Evan is able to assess the situation, Victor descends in a swift and violent ambush that he has no choice but to follow. And so the real story begins: two brothers holding a family hostage at gunpoint -- one half-crazed, one terrified, both demanding answers. Though neither one knows what hell they're in for, or for that matter, that the creature locked in the basement is getting hungry...

Get ready for some creepy s$#!!

Blood Creek has a lot of things going for it, first and foremost being a couple of excellent actors. I could talk all day about how much gravitas Michael Fassbender adds to any ensemble cast, but there's no ignoring the talent of Henry Cavill. It's almost annoying that a man that pretty should be such a compelling actor, but he's undeniable. That's one thing I have to give Joel Shumacher credit for, the guy knows his studs. To a somewhat lesser extent, Dominic Purcell is a good fit -- he's not the finest actor in the world, but when you need a guy to go into a two-hour berzerker rage (and Vin Diesel's too expensive) you could do worse.

Henry and Dominic juxtapose one another nicely.

While there are one or two brief moments of questionable cg, they are overshadowed by the truly excellent make-up effects and gore. The Mr. Wirth character goes through a rainbow of disgusting metamorphoses, encompassing all of the horrid, visceral (sometimes gooey, sometimes flaky) trappings of a skin-shedding, Nazi-zombie-vampire-demon-wraith burn victim. DELICIOUS. Couple that with the unholy voice modulation and you've got yourself one heck of a movie monster:

...sure to get your inner chimp shrieking in terror!

Still, Blood Creek is not entirely perfect. The plot of the film stutters, stalls and leaps around. We're handed huge chunks of information abruptly, with little to no time to process them, before it's back to the action. Though for what it's worth, the action is fairly excellent and exceedingly scary. And while the film doesn't attempt to to tackle all of the hows and whys behind Nazi curses and how to break them -- it's probably better that way.

Undoubtedly original, well-acted, beautifully shot, truly frightening -- there is a lot for horror movie fans to enjoy here, not the least of which being that Mr. Schumacher has somehow squeaked out another good watchable flick. Not that it gets him off the hook for putting nipples on the goddamned Bat suit.

But thanks for the naked Henry Cavill.

ON A SCALE OF 1-10: Grisly, brutal and FUN! 8.

http://fromtheblackchair.blogspot.com/2010/11/blood-creek.html

Thursday, November 18, 2010
BLOOD CREEK
Marine Victor Marshall (Dominic Purcell “Prison Break”) and his brother (Henry Cavill “Hellraiser: Hellworld) return to the farm where Victor was held captive for two years to get revenge on the family that kept him there. Once there they realize they are facing an evil they could not imagine. This movie starts off pretty strong and just sort of stays together from there. The acting of both Purcell and Cavill bring this film down considerably—sometimes casting people from Great Britain to play a couple of boys from West Virginia isn’t such a great idea. The story is an interesting one, rooted in Nazi Germany and the arrival of a stranger (Michael Fassbender “Inglorious Basterds” “Eden Lake”). The “evil” looks interesting, has interesting powers, but fails to really do what is intended: scare the audience. His motive is somewhat unclear and the story crumbles by the end. Fairly poor CGI brings this one down a notch too. Fassbender does a really good job in his limited role, bringing the only really decent bit of acting to the film. The setting, the farm, is a good one, and bits of the movie reminded me of “Night Of The Scarecrow”, an old favorite of mine, so it gets points for that. Overall though, this is a mediocre movie. IMDB Score: 5
Posted by Josh at 9:57 PM