Blood Creek dvd reviews and spoilers

http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2010/01/04/Review-of-Joel-Schumachers-BLOOD-CREEK-formerly-Town-Creek

Review of Joel Schumacher's BLOOD CREEK (formerly Town Creek)

Posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 0:13:07 GMT by: agentorange
Posted under: movie review dvd horror vampires

Year: 2009
DVD Release Date: January 19, 2010
Directors: Joel Schumacher
Writers: David Kajganich
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: agentorange
Rating: 7 out of 10

Don't be fooled by the direct-to-video nature of Blood Creek's release because it doesn't reflect the quality of the film. It's all very silly to be sure, but Michael Fassbender, Dominic Purcell and Henry Cavill elevate this small, locked-in-a-farmhouse vampire yarn with some great performances, while Joel "nipple suit" Schumacher is actually in fine form, delivering what is probably his tightest direction since Tigerland.

The film is also surprisingly cinematic. filmed in glorious 2.35:1 widescreen, cinematographer Darko Suvak wields serious camera skills to make Blood Creek feel a little grander than expected. Definitely not the quick and dirty, b-level horror outing I was expecting from the trailer.

Unfortunately David Kajganich's script killed the rating on this one. While I like how he riffs on vampirism by throwing together Nazis, the occult and a revenge tale (I was totally on board with the first half of the film), the story's main premise contains a major piece of faulty logic that irked me the entire last half of the film. In the interest of keeping the top of this review spoiler-free, I won't reveal it here, but keep reading to discover what about the film's story bugged me enough to drop the rating a whole point.

Consider yourself spoiler warned.

I genuinely love the way Blood Creek kicks things off with a bang. Big brother, Dominic Purcell, has been missing for two years. Younger brother, Henry Cavill, presumes him dead. One night, Purcell reappears. He is hirsute and severely pissed off. Packing up every gun he can find, he grabs little brother and the two head off to get revenge on his kidnappers, a German family who, we find out, are untouched by time.

A quick and bloody showdown erupts. Weaving in and out of the old house's creepy old rooms, it's well shot and intense. What starts as a little human vs. human action though, quickly turns into an all-out fight for survival against the supernatural when a Nazi vampire that is being held captive in the family's basement is let loose. Starting the action mid-story like this and then amping it up is a stroke of genius, but unfortunately here's also where the trouble starts.

According to the family's daughter (played by Emma Booth), she trapped the blood thirsty Nazi occultist in their basement years earlier and has continued to feed him just enough to keep him alive, but not enough that he could become an all powerful being. The twist? They are actually victims of the basement Nazi as well. But, why is the family feeding the vampire at all? Why not just let him starve as soon as they trapped him and be done with it? My theory is that if they killed him, they would break the spell that's keeping them young and they would die. But it's not explained very well in the film and is, in my mind, a major logic flaw. Even though I kept telling myself to "give the fun Nazi vampire flick a break," I just couldn't let it go. Ah well, perhaps it won't bug you guys as much as me.

As I said, the cast is a strong ensemble. Like in Prisoner Break, Purcell plays a great older brother to Cavill, but I wished for a little more background on the two to really solidify the relationship. Fassbender in full freaky make-up is also an OTT treat, and even though he doesn't have much to do but strut around chanting in ancient Austrian or something, he's still truly a force to be reckoned with and I'd really like to see him play more baddies now that his career is blowing up.



My advice: Forget your Schumacher prejudices and check out Blood Creek when it debuts on DVD January 19. If the film was the work of a new name in horror, I think people would be more inclined to get excited, but as it's essentially a low-budget work by a big director no one's really paying any attention. No, the movie won't change your life, but as a fast-paced supernatural survival flick it's sure to entertain for 90 minutes. There's an insane scene with a horse that'll be worth every penny. Just don't let a couple of the films plot inconsistencies irk you.

http://boxofficeboredom.blogspot.com/2010/01/blood-creek-aka-town-creek.html

Sunday, January 17, 2010
Blood Creek (aka Town Creek)
A Review by Mike Frohwein

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Michael Fassbender, Henry Cavill
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Rated: R for language, violence, domestic abuse, sexual content
Movie Released: 2009
IMDB Link

When I spied that Joel Schumacher's Blood Creek was making its DVD debut this week, I decided I had to say something about it, entirely due to the circumstance of the flick. My local bargain theater was one of the "lucky" ones that received a one-week run during a September dump by Lionsgate Films, and I managed to be one of the few to experience this relatively unknown, yet slickly polished, horror flick.

Blood Creek begins by telling us of Adolf Hitler's attempts to harness occult powers during his reign of power in the 1940s, and introducing us to a German Officer (Inglorious Basterds' Michael Fassbender) who comes to a small Virginia farm to try and harness a rare power. After acquiring a blood-sucking power that's not unlike a vampire's, the German chap is trapped by the family and the film suddenly jumps ahead to present day. After a family subplot is quickly resolved, two brothers (Prison Break's Dominic Purcell and Stardust's Henry Cavill) end up at the farm, which is still being terrorized by the undead Nazi blood-sucker. Purcell's character seems to have been a part of some experimenting done by said sucker (I'm unsure if anyone told him the War ended, unfortunately), and the story unfolds from there.

If you're a little lost in that description, you're not alone. Blood Creek is a muddled film, which many have attributed to a "butchering" of the script by Schumacher during production. There are plenty of loose ends and slightly explained occurrences throughout the film, and I recall scratching my head while trying to make connections often. The actors don't do much to help with this, as they shift through the dim setting quickly and never seem to have a full understanding of what they're trying to say either.

I've never been a member of the lynch mob that's still after Schumacher based on his Batman films, and I actually enjoy a majority of the films I've seen from him. And in his defense, Blood Creek is a very good-looking film with heaps of gore and a lot of atmosphere. The villain is very impressive to behold and would definitely terrify me if I ran into it in a back alley, as well. The Nazi ties add to the intrigue of the film early on and really help it become interesting, until the story gets twisted up in itself like I already mentioned.

In total, Blood Creek is a slick bit of horror entertainment at its best and a incomprehensible mess at its worst. If it were a film from a first-time writer/director who's simply getting his feet wet, I'd probably be forgiving of its faults. But coming from an established Hollywood director, it's a bit of a disappointment. I won't condemn the film entirely, as I do think it's worth a rental based on its atmosphere and original concept, but I find myself sad that the whole thing wasn't put together more carefully. There was a good movie inside this one, and unfortunately it got lost during the process.

http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/01/dvd-release-news-after-dark-horrorfest-4-the-collector-blood-creek-bitch-slap/

Blood Creek:
First up is Blood Creek, which hits DVD this Tuesday, January 19 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment. Starring Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, and Michael Fassbender, the film directed by Joel Schumacher hasn’t gotten much positive criticism, but we can’t weigh in on that since we haven’t had the chance to see it yet.

Here’s the official synopsis:
Blood Creek, a tense supernatural horror-thriller concerning two brothers who find themselves at the center of a terrifying occult experiment. In 1936, the Wollners, a German family living in Town Creek, West Virginia, are contacted by the Third Reich to host a visiting scholar. In need of money, they accept Professor Richard Wirth into their home, unaware of the Third Reich’s practices in the occult and Wirth’s real mission that will keep the family bound for decades to come. After 71 years, in 2007, Evan Marshall’s life has stalled at 25 years old when he is left without answers after his older brother Victor’s disappearance from a camping trip near Town Creek. 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 their boat and follows Victor back to Town Creek on a mission of revenge that will test them in every possible way.

http://www.fearnet.com/news/reviews/b17975_dvd_review_blood_creek.html


DVD Review: 'Blood Creek'
Today 12:22 PM PST , by Scott Weinberg
Blood Creek

Now here's a weird case: An out-of-nowhere occult-heavy horror flick from director Joel Schuamcher (The Lost Boys, Flatliners), production company Gold Circle (Slither, White Noise), distributor Lionsgate (too many horror films to mention) -- that got a contractually-mandated afterthought of a theatrical release (25 theaters!) before popping up on the horror shelves, looking all slick and intriguing. (Say what you like about the film itself, but Blood Creek, previously known as Town Creek and also plain old Creek, does offer one bad-ass DVD cover.)

And what's Joel Schumacher, only a few years removed from The Number 23 and The Phantom of the Opera, doing in Romania making a low-budget horror flick about a satanic nazi vampire zombie-master?

I have no idea, nor am I sure A) who Gold Circle thought would go see this flick on a Friday night or B) why it (like so many other Lionsgate horror offerings lately) was tossed into a "shame" release and then all but forgotten about. What I do know is that, barring a few clumsy bouts of exposition and a general air of familiarity, Schumacher's Blood Creek is a perfectly passable horror-freak time-waster -- but only if you can pop it on to your TV with a minimum of extra effort. Slickly shot, intermittently creepy, and eventually kinda satisfying, sure, but there's no way Blood Creek is some sort of under-the-radar mini-masterpiece.

The basic gist of the plot is that Evan (Henry Cavill) must team up with his long-lost big brother Vic (Dominic Purcell) to rid a local farmhouse of a diabolically possessed family and their longtime houseguest: a satanic nazi vampire zombie-master. I'll leave the backstory to the Schumacher's noir-ish flashbacks (and while we're at it let's leave the character development to a handful of clumsy early scenes) and cut right to the meat of the matter: Once Blood Creek gets down to business, it's sort of a "isolated house siege" horror film, not unlike the settings found in Night of the Living Dead and The Evil Dead. Only instead of combating corpses or demons, our heroes (and that family of possessed kooks, don't forget) must fight off maniacal horses, re-animated hayseeds, and (all together now) a satanic nazi vampire zombie-master.

Points to Schumacher for including just enough characters to serve as body count fodder, and high marks indeed to the soon-to-be-classic sequence in which a bloodthirsty horse tears apart a kitchen while getting shot to pieces.

And just when things can't get much weirder, up pops the always-welcome Shea Whigam as a monster victim who suffers all sorts of horrific fates. Horror-wise, Blood Creek's villain (Michael Fassbender as a deformed immortal nazi known as Wirth) feels a bit like a Cenobite who got his own spin-off flick, but (to be fair) this bad guy does keep the carnage coming at a brisk clip. And he's remarkably persistent.

Clearly the victim of some last-minute (or plain old sloppy) editing, Blood Creek asks you to wander through some dry material and clumsy storytelling before it finally gets down to sticking all its characters into a house with a crazy monster outside. Still, there's something to be said for slickly-calculated (if basic) scares, a slightly unique villain, and just enough style to make something so basic look relatively new.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/this-week-on-dvd-and-blu-ray-january-19-2010

Blood Creek

Apparently the decision to put nipples on the batsuit was such a sin Joel Schumacher is now directing direct-to-video horror/thrillers. However, this one has Michael Fassbender in it which is the main reason I still haven't filed it away and have it in my "To Watch" pile. Who knows, perhaps it's better than its awful title suggests. Dammit, now I want to watch it. Maybe I'll have a review for you in the next few days.

http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/929-dvd-reviews/6287-blood-creek.html

SmallMediumLarge
Blood Creek
Written by Anders Nelson
Monday, 18 January 2010
Blood Creek
Movie:

6.0
Picture:

6.0
Sound:

5.0
Extras:

3.0
Score:

5.0
Director(s): Joel Schumacher
Writer(s): David Kajganich
Starring: Dominic Purcell • Michael Fassbender • Emma Booth • Henry Cavill
Genre: Horror
Release Date: January 19, 2010
Rated: R
List Price: DVD - $22.49
Amazon:

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the direct-to-DVD section…he’s back. That’s right, the most reviled director in the history of fandom has returned, this time with a horror movie (the kind that’s usually described as ‘too shocking for theaters’). But to be fair Joel Schumacher (the man held responsible for Batman and Robin, typically seen as the worst superhero film in history) has turned in some reasonably good films (The Lost Boys and Falling Down are both seen as modern classics by some, and with good reason), and he’s probably the reason that this film is a little better than I expected it to be. Blood Creek still fits into the mold of other Lionsgate horror films, but I would be lying by omission if I didn’t say that it was the sharpest one that I had seen yet.

Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) is the responsible type; he has a job few people would take no matter the pay (a paramedic), and takes care of people (namely, his father and his brother’s children) who have been left helpless in the absence of his missing war hero brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell), who has gone missing under mysterious circumstances. One night, Evan wakes up in his trailer to find that Victor has returned after living in the nearby forest for reasons he does not immediately explain. He does, however, persuade Evan to come back into the woods with him to confront the people who had kept Victor captive: as it turns out, a small group of farmers who had been using Victor as sustenance to keep control of a real monster, an old Nazi doctor who has been transformed by his own life-prolonging experiments into a creature that requires blood for sustenance (Michael Fassbender). Naturally, by confronting the farmers over what they did to Victor, they are also allowing the monster to escape.

It’s a little more complicated than that, as the film-makers have to do some pretty heavy legwork to justify setting this movie about Nazi experiments in West Virginia (the black arts and the Nordic landing in North America are both incorporated), and they actually include a pretty lengthy prologue to do so, but that’s the most dominant feature that links this to its low-budget brethren. Unlike other directors that are typically charged with this kind of material, Schumacher is someone who is clearly used to getting what he wants in terms of budget, and it shows. Where some directors might zoom in on their subjects to obscure the lack of a well-prepared set, Schumacher shows you the whole thing (important, because about half the movie takes place at this farm house). When some might be happy with subpar performances (that’s putting it kindly in terms of what I’ve seen from some of these), Schumacher actually gets some decent work out of Cavill, Purcell, and Emma Booth (one of the farmers who has been kept at age 17 for many years due to the experiments). While restraint and subtlety are certainly not the order of the day, this approach does help to distinguish this feature from others of a similar ilk.

Which is not to say that this is in any way a genre-transcending movie, because it isn’t. The performances and the cinematography are all reasonably good, but by the standards of this kind of picture, which has tended to strain the boundaries of what could be considered a distributable film. While due credit has to be given for introducing a potential hot coal into the horror genre (Nazis and their black arts programs), the subject matter is never given either due respect or the camp excess that one would like to see from it (for those of you who remember Frederick Forrest’s army surplus store owner from Falling Down, this comes as a bit of a surprise). In the end, the best one can say about Blood Creek is that it evidences some promise for Schumacher in the horror genre. Seeing as this is coming more than twenty years after his first foray into said material, that might be too little too late.

DVD Bonus Features

Director’s Commentary

http://www.filmschoolrejects.com/features/coroners-report-blood-creek-robfr.php

Coroner’s Report: Blood Creek

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on January 21, 2010

If there is one thing that will always get my attention, it’s a topless woman getting stabbed through the boob. Blood Creek does not feature that one thing. It does, however, have the second thing that will always catch my eye: Super Nazi Occultist Monsters. Blood Creek is a strange beast. It features Dominic Purcell and Michael Fassbender in primary roles and is directed by Joel Schumacher. Yet, here it arrives, direct to DVD. The production values behind the movie are far greater than what we’re used to on direct to DVD horror as well. Somewhere along the line, this film got, perhaps unfairly, side-tracked into the direct to DVD bin.

Blood Creek is the fast paced occultist horror film that gets going right away when Victor Marshall unexpectedly appears at home after going missing for two years to enlist the aide of his brother, Evan, in righting the wrongs done against him. The two brothers are soon storming a strangely adorned rural farmhouse with the intent to kill those responsible for Victor’s detention and torture. What we find, though, are a Germanic family with a strange, dark secret that doesn’t stay locked in the basement very long.

Kills

This is a tough one to tabulate. Four people are killed, though most of those people are killed again after being resurrected. Another two die, though it’s hard to call their deaths murder, more like incidentals. So about six body bags, but a few good kills.

Ills

It’s tough to be an animal in Blood Creek. A dog is killed, twice, a pig is slaughtered, and a horse is killed. We see a spurting neck wound (nice!), a shotgun blast to the stomach, a bullet to the brain, and a couple of stabbings – including one bone knife thrust through the jaw. There is some more stabbings, a hand punched through a chest, and a knife slammed into a forehead. The best bits of violence come down to either an awesome barbed wire choke/head rip and a guy getting bitten by a demon horse.

Lust

Nada.

Learning

Don’t mess with the Occult. Or Nazis. Duh. Also, if you’re a a bad ass Nazi demon dude, you should ride on a demon horse. Because that’s f#%@#&! awesome.

Review

Blood Creek starts off with a stylish black and white introduction that makes excellent use of light and darkness. Right away, the skill of the filmmakers and those involved is apparent – it’s nice to see such production values. That’s not to say a slick looking film is everything though. The movie isn’t perfect by any means, but it is pretty enjoyable. The film is a non-stop barrage once it gets going, which is pretty much five minutes into the flick. If anything, the film probably moves too fast for it’s own good. When you have a plot progressing at this speed, there is little time for questioning, which leaves little time for setting things up. For instance, when Victor shows up, with long hair and a beard after being gone for two years, he’s recruited Evan to go on a vendetta ride with him after about 12 seconds of talking. Likewise, there isn’t much backstory given to the Occult angle – though there is some, through the initial flashback.

Blame here mostly would lay on the script for the speed at which things progress, though that was probably the intention. Is it better to be a worse movie due to moving too fast or moving too slow? Frankly, I’d rather see a bad movie that moves fast than a bad one that moves slow. Blood Creek is neither bad nor slow, but it’s not great either. It is definitely fast though.

Overall, the film is cool and stylish, a quick ride through the world of Nazis, the Occult, and demon horses. The violence is good, the blood runs frequently, and the film maintains a pretty good bit of tension. The visuals are pretty badass as well, and I’m going to mention demon horses one more time to put this image into your head: a bad ass Nazi occultist with a messed up face and a leather jacket riding a demonic horse covered in shotgun wounds. If you can overlook the script and story problems associated with the rushed pace, you’ll be able to take some enjoyment from this Nazi battle royale. I also liked the somewhat open ended conclusion that could lead to some interesting follow-ups, though what are the odds of them being made? Low. But still, could be cool. Give this film a shot, it’s worth a watch.

B-

http://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/movies/82336502_New_on_DVD_this_week.html

BLOOD CREEK (2009, Lionsgate, R, $28) — Nazis, zombies, rune stones, that big bald dude from "Prison Break" (Dominic Purcell) — what more could you ask for in a low-rent horror thriller? In his straight-to-DVD debut, one-time hot-shot director Joel Schumacher ("Batman & Robin") rattles the action along with pace and a creeping sense of panic. "Inglourious Basterds" star Michael Fassbender is the main attraction as a Nazi scientist whose occult experiments have left him all-powerful yet inexplicably housebound in rural West Virginia. Don't ask; just go with the "Blood" flow. Extras: Schumacher commentary.

http://www.fatally-yours.com/horror-reviews/blood-creek-2010/

Blood Creek (2010)

Blood CreekReview by Chris Jacques

Blood Creek, the latest film from prolific and high-profile director Joel Schumacher (the two sh*#&% Batman movies), is mysterious and suspenseful before the movie even begins. Firstly, I had no idea that this movie even existed until about a month ago, when I saw that I could get it for free by trading in 4 movies at my local MovieStop. The cover looked cool, and it’s a horror flick, which is about all I usually need to give a movie a shot.

When I got home, I researched the flick a bit, and found out that Schumacher was at the helm of it, and was shocked that more of a fuss hadn’t been made about it. Sure, movies like The Number 23 don’t cement him as a master of the horror genre; Hell, even an early pop classic of his, The Lost Boys, doesn’t quite buy him adequate street cred in eyes of this particular horror fan. But he’s done plenty of work over the years that I have liked (St. Elmo’s Fire and the amazing Falling Down are but a couple) and the guy has definitely put asses in theater seats for over two decades.

All of this makes it extremely confusing that Schumacher is behind Blood Creek, an alternately sleepy and enraged horror flick of a rather gruesome overall character that deals with the horrors of wars past and present while being built on a foundation of Adolf Hitler’s fascination with the occult. Near the end of WWII, it’s occasionally speculated that Hitler held a belief that the power of runes & rune stones, ancient pagan magic, would secure victory for Germany against the Allied Powers. Blood Creek takes that wildly imaginative piece of historical trivia and runs with it for miles.

Honestly, it’s a rather ridiculous premise, and that seems to settle the mystery of why this Schumacher flick got the Midnight Meat Train treatment from Lionsgate, the film’s distributor. Blood Creek isn’t a terribly frightening movie, but it definitely has some powerful gore shots and is a pretty intense film for someone who makes movies with the kind of polish and refinement that Schumacher tends to give his films.

Oh, and then the giant Nazi zombie bursts out of a barn basement and the movie completely flips its f#%@#&! lid. The movie intimates that there’s going to be some aspects of occultism in it, and the DVD cover all but gives it away, but the entire movie goes insane by the time the zombie SS warlock rips a horse’s throat out, turns it into a zombie horse that stampedes into a farmhouse and eats some poor jerk’s shoulder. Yeah, this is from the guy who directed D.C. Cab and the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.

The movie doesn’t really have any star-power to speak of in it, with Eden Lake’s Michael Fassbender being the only name I recognized, but all of the acting is acceptable and adequate; it’s not too hard to act angry and/or scared for 90 minutes, but everyone involved does keep that train rolling, at least. The aesthetic of the film manages to have that similar cinematographic effect as did a prior work of Schumacher’s, 8MM, in that it simultaneously manages grit and gloss, and is also as annoyingly dark & murky as was that movie. And the overall plot, while wafer-thin in the face of zombie classics like Dawn of the Dead, does offer a bit more to bite into than the typical undead fare…perhaps because it confuses/blends so much (our villain is a walking corpse with magical powers that maintains strength off of the blood of his victims, but is somehow not a vampire) together that the movie’s monster is almost a brand new creation. It’s ingenious in the way that music mash-ups or remixes are ingenious, which is something that many would contend is a debatable quantity.

I’m not one of those people, though. I like mash-up records, I think remixes are fun, and Blood Creek is ultimately enjoyable. It’s an action-packed gore bath with enough of a shock to it and so much chaos contained in it that it’s a pretty passable effort. Matter of fact, I wouldn’t mind Joel Schumacher doing a dozen more movies of this ilk; he still owes Batman fans for what he did with Batman & Robin, but he’ll work off his sentence if he keeps putting together unexpectedly sick little treats like this.

http://bradeatspeeps.livejournal.com/143702.html

Blood/Town Creek

This is a Joel Schumacher movie, and when you are watching Joel Schumacher movies, you should remember that somewhere in the middle, the movie you are watching will go horribly, terribly wrong. THIS MAN MADE "BATMAN AND ROBIN". THAT CAN NEVER BE FORGIVEN.

"Blood/Town Creek" is the story of a man (Henry GUUUH Cavill) whose Iraq war vet brother (Dominic RAWR Purcell) goes missing shortly after he returns from active duty. Two years later, the brother shows back up, looking like a crazy hobo, and they go back to the place where he has been held captive to seek revenge on his captors.

What I forgot to tell you is that the movie actually starts in 1936 and there are NAZIS. Everybody knows that Nazis LOVE the occult, and Michael DoMeNow Fassbender is one of said Nazis, and he is in the USA after something called a rune stone that will eventually turn him into a zombie-creating vampire thing.

Yeah, whatever. Who cares.

And that is the problem. The first half of the movie you are all OMG WHUT? WAIT, WHUT? WHAT IS THAT? HUH? OMFG! And then Somewhere Around the Middle, it all turns into a mess. I have no idea if Fassbender is a vampire or WTF. He's just this THING that drinks blood, and he is only hot for about five minutes, and then he's a gross mess of skin and blood and growls. It's just..*SIGH* The movie was actually really interesting for about 45 minutes.

When the zombie horses showed up, I should have known.

YEAH. ZOMBIE HORSES. And ZOMBIE DOGS. And ZOMBIE ZOMBIES. This vampire thing can make zombies with his mystical black magic powers.

*SIGH*

So, due to the fact that the last half of the movie is a big horrible mess, a mess so horrible that not even 2.5 hot guys can save it, I have to give "Blood/Town Creek" 3 Shirtless Henry Cavill's out of 5.

When I get home, I'll be posting a screen cap of the only reason that you should attempt to watch that movie. TRUST ME. IT WILL BE WORTH IT.

http://www.zoomerlk.com/2010/01/town-creek-2009-dvdrip-xvid-vision/

Town Creek 2009 DVDRip XviD-ViSiON

by admin on Jan.22, 2010, under DVDrip, Movies
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I have a good new movie for you tonight. It s the dvdrip for the movie Town Creek aka Blood Creek . it`s a 2009 drama/horror movie starring Dominic Purcell (Prison Break) and directed by Joel Schumacher (The Phantom of the Opera ). They changed the title, I don t know why, Lions Gate didn t provide any information about that. Size is 1CD and quality is pretty good. English and spanish subtitles are included. enjoy .

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

http://www.brutalashell.com/2010/01/dvd-review-blood-creek/

DVD Review: Blood Creek
24 January 2010 No Comment

Blood CreekBlood Creek (2009)
Studio: Lionsgate
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Emma Booth
Review by: Marc Patterson

It sucks popping in a film that you’ve heard nothing good about. It’s already set up to fail. Such was the predicament I found myself in as I began viewing Blood Creek. It was a film that had been described as all but an epic failure on the part of Joel Schumacher, a guy who hasn’t done anything truly great since The Lost Boys era. Okay, so I liked Flatliners too. Perhaps having my expectations lowered this deeply might have helped the film because I actually liked it.

Blood Creek, originally titled Town Creek (a title that would have certainly caused its imminent demise), is a simplistic story surrounding a Nazi plot for world domination. (I know, you’re still not sold.) Back in the late 30’s, the Nazi party turned to the occult to help them advance their cause towards world domination (nothing original there). They sent field agents out into various locales worldwide to uncover odd rune stones that bore the symbol of the swastika. Within these runes one could discover an ancient alchemical secret to eternal life. Our lead protagonist Professor Wirth (Michael Fassbender), a leather clad storm trooper educated from ancient texts containing every bit of black magic known to mankind, has descended upon a small German-run farm in West Virginia…or was it Maryland? It doesn’t matter, and I digress. Here he offers the family a generous monthly stipend to allow him to stay there and conduct his studies around the ancient rune stone, now a permanent fixture in the family root cellar.

blood_creek1Professor Wirth quickly reveals his dark nature to the family, but it’s too late and they are ensnared. Fast forward to the modern day into the film proper, and the story switches pace as we focus on two brothers who portray a more militant version of the boys from Supernatural. Older brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) has been missing for two years and his family has all but assumed his death. His younger brother Evan (Henry Cavill) looks after Victor’s kids and takes care of their dad, who clearly has favored Victor. Suddenly, in the middle of the night Victor shows back up again, ragged, bearded, and disheveled. Without any time for hello’s or explanation for where he’s been or what’s happened to him over the past two years, he arms himself to the teeth with every firearm within grabbing distance, and with brother in tow, they head out to that German farm, now a place of pure evil, for some vigilante style retribution.

From here the film turns into a quick-shot siege-style showdown, packing in plenty of tense action and gore against the vampirish Nazi, who – through his advanced powers – controls an army of undead. Which, by the way, includes a very memorable scene with a zombie horse wreaking havoc in the farmhouse. That’s right. A zombie horse IN the farmhouse. Brilliant.

Acting wise, Schumacher has brought together a strong cast of characters. Both Purcell and Cavill are believable as brothers, and make for one hell of an ass kicking team. The German family’s daughter Liese, played by Emma Booth, equally complemented the cast as the victimized innocent, who rises against her tormentor. And of course there’s Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds), who is such a phenomenal actor that to see his role as a villain relegated to a monstrous puppet master that stalks about in the darkness was slightly disappointing. Nonetheless, he took the role and really made it his own, creating a memorable villain that would be worthy of reprisal should there be any future installments.

blood_creek2

Not that all things are perfect in this nightmarish seek and destroy film. If you want to make it to the action, you’re going to have to let things ride for the first twenty minutes or so before you can begin to enjoy yourself. The opening of the film feels incredibly disjointed and disconnected. While there’s certainly plenty of quick-paced sequences, there’s nothing much in the way of exposition until we finally get headlong into the horror of the film. And given the lack of exposition, one has to struggle to maintain the questionable logic that is being laid out. Additionally, if I’m going to complain I might as well toss in my requisite rant against piss poor CGI. The film could have benefited from more practical effect work rather than watered down CGI blood spatter. When it comes to blood in Hollywood, I just don’t get why CGI always wins out. Even Raimi’s recent celebrated return to horror saw a rejection of those practical effects that made him famous in lieu of computer enhanced tomfoolery. Someone, take a moment in the comments to explain this to me.

Regardless of the film’s flaws, Blood Creek is a win for horror fanatics overall. It’s an original story (albeit based on a clichéd premise), and one that is executed smartly. The pacing is dead on, and the run time stays right where I think most horror films should be – at an acceptable 93 minutes. Sure, it isn’t anything groundbreaking, nor is it overtly terrifying, but thanks to a rather memorable antagonist and some original set-pieces (including said zombie horse), Blood Creek proves to be a rather perfectly good waste of time.

http://thehorrorclub.blogspot.com/2010/01/blood-creek-2010.html

January 28, 2010
Blood Creek (2010)
"Who doesn't love a good story about a Nazi necromancer and a herd of zombie horses?"


BLOOD CREEK (aka Town Creek)
Sub-Genre- Occult

Cast Members of Note- Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, and Emma Booth.
Directed by Joel Schumacher.

What's it About?- During WWII, a German family living in America is bribed by the Third Reich to let a Nazi scholar come and live with them on their quaint little Town Creek farm. It turns out that the scholar is in search of a rune stone that is buried on their property, and wants to use it to turn himself into a super Nazi bad-ass. Subsequently, the family is trapped on their farm (which is frozen in time) and put through hell for the next several decades.

"Ich liebe untoten Pferde!"

Fast forward about 70 years, and we meet Evan; an EMT with a heart of gold, who lives near Town Creek and is a mess since his brother Victor disappeared while they were camping together 2 years earlier. How do you stay lost in the woods for 2 years? I don't know the answer to that one, but when Victor suddenly shows up in the middle of the night looking like Dan Haggerty on crack, the two of them head back to Town Creek to get revenge on "those kraut bastards" who have been keeping him a prisoner all along.

For the love of God I hope he's planning to shoot Channing Tatum.

The problem is, "Those Kraut bastards" have a super Nazi bad-ass necromancer with a thirst for warm blood locked in their cellar, and when he gets out they're all pretty much destined to die painfully. Can the brothers defeat the evil Nazi sorcerer? Will zombie horses nip a guy in the shoulder and pull him through the window? Do the words "bone armor" make anyone else laugh other than me? Maybe, yes, and they just have to.

Bone armor. Lulz.

The Good- I am absolutely astounded at how good this movie was. First and foremost, I loved the premise; the Nazi's sent "Scholars" to America to find ancient rune stones, hoping to harness their occult powers to win WWII and thus rule the world. If that isn't creepy, I don't know what is, especially since the Nazi's actually were into the occult.

The occult aspect of this movie is its strong point. Magic rune stones, reanimated dead people and animals, blood rituals, wards painted on the house to keep the evil at bay, people frozen in time, the Lovecraftian "third eye", and those creepy necromantic spells that the Nazi whispers... It was just all really, really cool.

I actually felt tense during much of this film, and especially once the super Nazi shows up and starts kicking all sorts of ass. The guy can reanimate anything dead to do his bidding, which makes things all the more interesting. Zombie horses. Yep. Bad ass. It's nice to see Joel Schumacher making a strong return to the horror genre, after all he is the guy that gave us The Lost Boys and Flatliners. And two horrible Batman sequels... anyway, welcome back Joel.

Yeah, this actually happened.

The Bad- Zombie horses. Not only are they huge, mean, and very creepy to look at, but they are near impossible to kill. If it doesn't die after 10 shotgun blasts, I quit shooting and run. Or I turn the gun on myself.

The Downright Horrendous- After a few title changes and basically no promotion whatsoever, Lionsgate dumped this movie into a handful of $1 theaters and then banished it to Straight-to DVD hell. Why? Did anyone see The Stepfather, Whiteout, or Sorority Row? They all got theatrical runs, decent promotion, and they all sucked. Badly. Blood Creek is a great little movie, and I refuse to believe it couldn't have made enough $ at the BO to justify even a short release. I just don't get it.

The Gory- This one is a gorefest; blood drinking, blood letting, torture, bone knives through chins, all sorts of shotgun violence, zombie horse violence overkill, dog stabbings, zombie violence... all sorts of messy goodness to be found here.

Ouchie.

The Naked- No.

Best Line- "That's mine." or "No. you're going to feed me."

What did we learn?- Zombie horses are really hard to kill. Also, Evil Nazi's never die, which means that Hitler is probably a zombie somewhere in Guam or something.

The Master Says- A (9.5/10) This movie was as enjoyable as any I've seen lately, and the best horror flick of the mew decade so far. Creepy, tense, interesting and bloody as all get out, Blood Creek is far better than its treatment by Lionsgate would have you believe. If you love Nazi's, zombies, or just have a love for the dark arts of necromancy, then you'll love this movie. You definitely need to rent this one, if not buy it as soon as you get the chance.

Final Thoughts- Winter Ave Zoli is in this. I love that name. I also love that face.

http://www.cinemablend.com/dvds/Blood-Creek-4425.html

Length: 90 min
Rated: R
Distributor: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
Release Date: 2010-01-19

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, Emma Booth, Shea Whigham, Laszlo Matray

Directed by Joel Schumacher
Produced by Paul Brooks, Tom Lassally, Robyn Meisenger
Written by David Kajganich

Article by Brian Holcomb : 2010-01-27 14:41:53

Blood Creek is a whole hell of a lot better than any movie called Blood Creek has a right to be. What sounds like the title of a '70s TV horror movie starring Bradford Dillman is actually the new film from director Joel Schumacher. Schumacher is a director known as much for his work on the Brat Pack "classics" St. Elmo's Fire and The Lost Boys as for putting nipples on the Batsuit in that epic fail known as Batman & Robin, a directorial decision that evoked a reaction about as negative as Dylan going electric. That said, sometimes an angry reaction is better than no reaction at all, which is what Blood Creek received upon being dumped into a handful of theaters and now onto DVD. In these days of Saw sequels and Halloween remakes, any original horror film should be greeted with respect. Luckily, Blood Creek ends up deserving some.

The Movie: dvd star rating

Viking runestones under the old barn. Immortal Nazi occultists who drink blood and ride zombie horses. Ancestral bones used as armor against evil. Third eyes growing out of the forehead. Sounds like someone's been reading his Lovecraft. The film begins with a prologue set in the 1930s, complete with wonderfully atmospheric black-and-white photography that crosses The Grapes of Wrath with German Expressionism. Arriving on a small farm in West Virginia, Nazi historian Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender) intends to "study" an ancient Viking rune found on the property. For their trouble, the family is to receive $150 a month while he stays with them. A fortune in those days, it proves to be not nearly enough for the trouble he brings. It seems that Wirth is planning on using the power in the stone, along with his own occult rituals, to defeat death itself and become a kind of superman God by the end of the process. Unfortunately, it's not an easy process, and it requires a great deal of blood in order to work. Things aren't always as they are advertised are they? The family become unwilling accomplices in his zeal for power and live through the years without aging, attending to his horrific needs.

Decades later, Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill, Showtime's The Tudors) an EMT worker dealing with the disappearance of his war-hero brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell, TV's Prison Break), finds himself suddenly face to face with him. Soaked in blood, Victor begs Evan for help, dragging him to the farmhouse where he was kept hostage. Confused but committed to helping his brother, Evan doesn't know what to make of the immortal German family he finds living there, and the terrifying mutated Wirth in the cellar demanding blood. The brothers join forces with the long-suffering family to learn the secret of the runestone and destroy Wirth before he can complete the ritual.

The "Nazi Occult" subgenre is rare enough in itself to deserve attention. Outside of the Indiana Jones films and Michael Mann's moment of insanity, The Keep, there's only a few Jesus Franco entries, one Jean Rollin (Zombie Lake), and perhaps the best known, Ken Wiederhorn's Shock Waves with Peter Cushing and hordes of Nazi superman zombies wearing sunglasses. Those films were less about Hitler and Himmler's fascination with the occult than with Nazi experiments in raising the dead. They were zombie movies at heart. Blood Creek isn't exactly a zombie film, but it has lots of zombie-styled action and a living-dead villain who drinks blood, so it's really just a matter of labeling. In fact, the film is gory enough to remind you of Lucio Fulci, in particular his 1981 film House by the Cemetery. That film has quite a few similarities with Blood Creek's plot and a monstrous, mutated villain with the unforgettable name Dr. Freudstein, who resembles this film's leather-jacketed Nazi monster as well. The difference lies in the approach. Fulci could care less about his ludicrous plot, because, like most pulp horror stories, it's ludicrous. Much better to focus on a nightmarish atmosphere and scary set pieces.

Schumacher is still too tied to the mainstream cinema to free himself from the need to explain what Wirth is doing and what powers he has and doesn't have. This makes him much less frightening, but Schumacher makes up for it by directing the action with so much enthusiasm and energy that the film propels past logic and catches up with Fulci's nightmares just around the corner. Once Victor returns, the film shifts gears into what is almost real time, with one incident giving way to the next with so much speed that David Kajganich's backstory can barely register. This is a good thing, since it doesn't matter HOW Wirth is able to raise a horse from the dead so much as that he DOES raise a horse from the dead. In an incredibly hallucinatory scene, the now demonic Mr. Ed crashes into the family kitchen, stomping on anyone in its way before being lit aflame! Now that's a scene I always wanted to see, even if I didn't know it. In fact, that scene should've been used to sell the whole picture: "Watch Flaming Horses from Hell Stomp the Life Out of the Innocent!"

The cast is usually of no consequence in these films, but this one is really top notch, perhaps even overqualified. Michael Fassbender from Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is particularly good as Wirth. But he's matched by Cavill, Purcell, and Emma Booth as the ageless family daughter. There isn't much material to work from, but each of these actors makes the most of what is there.

The film's open ending makes it seem like the pilot episode of a WB series. Just don't hold your breath waiting for the sequel. You'd have to be immortal to live long enough to see that happen.

The Disc: Blood Creek dvd star rating

There's nothing really special about the DVD. The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Digital. The sound mix is fine, but the images may just be a tad too dark. It's clear that this was an aesthetic choice by Schumacher, but some shots seemed to be nothing more than black frames. I love radio plays, but not while watching a movie.

The only real extra is an audio commentary from Schumacher. The director is a very calm, low-key host and seems to be proud of all the people he worked with in making the film, particularly his cast. Nothing very illuminating, but it's a good listen. The first half of the commentary is filled with all kinds of Nazi trivia he learned from his research and which make it almost seem like you are watching something pulpy about Nazis on the History Channel. He does eventually get around to talking more about filmmaking, his interest in the horror genre, the advantages and disadvantages of shooting a film in Romania, and his desire to put the audience right in the middle of the action from the middle of the film to the end. Altogether, I have to say that I he was totally successful in creating that effect, and it's one of the reasons I found the movie to be surprisingly entertaining.

http://www.cinemafromage.com/?p=1265

Blood Creek (2009)
Wednesday, February 03rd, 2010 | Author: Casey Criswell

I’ll be the first to admit; I’m not much of a Joel Schumacher fan. Sure, he’s had some winners in his time like “The Lost Boys” or even as far back as “D.C. Cab”, but he’s had quite a few stinkers as well. *cough* “The Number 23″ *cough*. When I originally came across the posters for “Blood Creek”, I was initially intrigued by the striking imagery of an occult carved nazi looking all scary and imposing. Then I read that Schumacher was involved and I pretty much immediately wrote the film off. It wasn’t until my cohort Todd over at Bloody Good Horror turned in his stellar review that I revisited the idea of tracking down the film.

Ultimately, I’m quite glad I did.

The setup in itself is simple; shortly before the beginning of the World War, the Germans learned of strange Nordic runestones located on rural farms across the eastern shores of the United States. With Hitlers fascination with the occult, the Nazis wasted no time in sending agents overseas to investigate the stones in person. As opposed to your typical Nazi Gestapo or SS Officer, they instead sent historians with a specialization in the occult. Once Richard Wirth, played by “Inglorious Basterds” Michael Fassbender, verifies that the stones contain the powers that the fuhrer seeks, the first steps of the end of the world are taken.

Jumping to the present, we’re introduced to Evan Marshall. He’s a busy man, taking care of his spiteful and delirious father after his brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) disappeared nearly two years before. When Evan is approached late one night by a shaggy drifter, he’s shocked to find that the aggressive bum is in fact Victor and that he hasn’t been that far away. Victor has been held captive in a nearby farm house and he wants revenge; and he wants Evan to help him. The very same farmhouse that the Nazis took keen interest in so many years before.

“Blood Creek”, as a I stated, has a simple premise. Nazi occultists, vanishing country folk and revenge. That is not to say that the movie itself is boring, basic or simple. There is a lot of nuance used to weave around our good guys and our bad guys, giving us just enough development to root for who need to and loathe the ones we hate. With such a basic setup, there isn’t much room for plot holes either. This allows the movie to flow and makes it easy to follow. We get to take in the characters we see before us and enjoy the action taking place on screen. This way, things stay exciting which is always a good thing.

In addition to good characters, we’re given a brand spanking new monster for the horror genre which has relied on mutated rednecks and general psychos far too much as of late. Who would you fear more? Random disgusting hillbillies or super charged monster Nazis? I think the choice is pretty clear. Wirth, the German Historian, has a good setup from look to action and motivation. Motivation is easy; he wants your blood for his ritual. You don’t need more than that, it’s clear and to the point! For look, as you can see from the poster he strikes quite the intimidating profile. For action, he is ruthless and cuts straight for the heart and also packs a wee bit of zombie raising power as well, which is always handy for a villain.

Characters and story aside, the action in “Blood Creek” is done quite well and packs a few surprises. That is to say, there actually is plenty of action which gives us a lot to enjoy. The film is not filled with a lot of overdrawn shots of our villain staring menacingly at people from the shadows. There isn’t much slow stalking or biding of time; the scary German guy simply gets down to business. It’s a lot of fun. You’ll be surprised at some of the things Wirth brings back to life to fight for him and you’ll enjoy watching him pounce on anything that moves outside of the house. Purcell and Henry Cavill, who plays brother Evan, fit in just as well. They manage to play smart characters that are tough and not jumpy and twitchy once they know what they are up against. Sure, they may make a few mistakes now and then but who wouldn’t. They are believable, they are fairly smart and though they may be scared, they know there is a job that needs to be done.

“Blood Creek” suffered at the hands of Lions Gate, robbed of a wide theatrical opening and little to no promotion when it finally came out on video this past week. It really is a shame as this movie is very enjoyable overall and deserves better treatment. Consider this me chipping in my own two cents to get the word out and I urge you to get out there and give it a rent. You’ll like it, I promise!

One note: this film has gone through a name change at some point in the release process. Known as “Blood Creek” on the DVD that just came out, it is still known as Town Creek on IMDb and a few other outlets as well.

http://www.rabbit-reviews.com/horror/town-creek-2009/

Town Creek [2009]
Posted in Horror
05Feb

Coming to us from famous Joel Schumacher(The Number 23, Phone Booth, 8MM, Falling Down) this movie is surprisingly not mainstream, big production effort. It rather represents an independent production with good visual effects. The story has great ingredients but the way they are cooked is somewhat questionable. Nazi experiments, Vikings, satanism, supernatural powers and the clash between good and evil erupt in this movie. The only problem is that most of those ideas are not elaborated and explained, that would make them even more appealing to audience. After the disappearance of his brother Evan Marshall has tried to lead a normal life as a paramedic, but once he appears and asks him to join him in a fight against an unknown enemy his life will take a different course. Visual effects and action sequences are very good, and the movie has that cool, almost comic like vibe. Although people might find this movie a bit shallow it is still very interesting, enjoy.

Director: Joel Schumacher

Cast: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, Emma Booth, Rainer Winkelvoss

Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆

http://ballisticbloodbullets.blogspot.com/2010/02/joel-in-crown-horror.html?zx=90f346a8ca09449e

Saturday, 13 February 2010
Joel In The Crown Horror

Blood Creek
(2009 / USA)

‘‘I’ve been seventeen longer than you’ve been alive’’

How very refreshing, an exuberant horror to rejuvenate the genre and add great credence to the oft maligned straight to DVD rental market. Joel Schumacher revisits chiller cinema for the first time since Flatliners (1990) and delivers the goods with a gusto that harkens back to his cult hit The Lost Boys (1987). This one has sharp teeth in the shape of an immortal necromancer, spawned from an eternal dark evil resurrected by order of Hitler himself, condoning his predilection for the proliferation of a pure Arian race. An exercise in pure Evil that tortures the God loving family Wollner beyond their own mortal span, tearing at the fabric of time, feeding off the innocent, and straining at the bit to be unleashed upon the modern world. Terror in the form of malignant man is benign before a keeper, but once unshackled its inherent Evil shows no remorse in its rapacious cycle of carnage !.

A poor German family settled in mid America, to farm and live off the land, receive a visit from a man who shows them his papers, and instruction from the homeland to take him in as their paying lodger. The year is 1936, the time of Hitler’s rule and his obsession with the black arts. The farm in which this rural family reside is set upon a formidably sized symbolic rune stone. Its properties believed to hold the secrets to life eternal !. An eerie occurrence is soon experienced by the young child of the family as she witnesses their guest, Herr Richard Wirth, bring a semblance of life back to her dead bird. An early sign of the ethereal embodiment Wirth is there to attain from his union with the rune stone.

Over seventy years later, the time is now and the young girl is still living with her family at the same farm, on the same land. The girl is now a young woman of seventeen years of age, and like her family they have not aged since the first formative years of the stranger arriving at their door. The area is still and the land is lifeless, but a pernicious presence lingers and its secret cannot be contained any longer !.

Evan Marshall is a parent living apart from his estranged wife and beloved children. As an emergency paramedic he works all hours and barely survives on the minimal hours of rest afforded him. His elder brother Victor has been missing for over a year, which torments their house bound father, who blames Evan for all his perceived shortcomings. Victor was a soldier who went to war for his country whilst Evan stayed on the home front.

One dark night Victor returns to awaken Evan from his short period of sleep during the early hours. He is startled by Victors almost unrecognisable state, long haired, fully bearded, barely clothed, and covered in mud and grime. Most startling of all is his bared back, cut, lacerated and apparently fed upon !. Bloodied and beaten, but with an abundant driven determination about him, Victor tells his brother to grab whatever weapons he can. Evan has many questions but refrains from asking them, doing as his brother asks as Victor hurriedly showers and cuts the tangled, overgrown hair from his head and face. Just before dawn the two of them arrive together at the outskirts of a run down farm, a place of great pain and torture perpetrated upon Victor by the Wollner family !?. Victor asks of his brother no questions but to believe in him that what lies before them is retribution upon a god forsaken homestead of evil doers, responsible for his state of being and reason for his durational disappearance. Held captive and tortured for so long he feels bound to end this family reign of blood letting for himself and others who have not survived the ordeal, and to ensure no one else falls victim !.

Evan is confused, but soon catapulted into an escalating myriad of madness and malignancy as evidence of dark forces envelope them. The two brothers storm the main homestead, violently shot gun blasting one of the male family members several times, only for him to still show signs of life !?. Victor wants answers from the head of the house Otto Wollner, but what he gets is of course not at all what it appears to be. Victor is not the only victim, and his return has set in motion an irreversible event that lets forth the true Evil.

What follows is an unrelenting juggernaut of fast paced, well staged, Action horror, splattered across the screen with all the gusto of an artist bringing a painting to life with each evocative stroke of the brush. Herr Wirth is unleashed to feast freely upon those gathered within the constraints of the property perimeter, their only hope for keeping him at bay being the symbolically signed home stead. Its entrance and windows blood etched in ancient hieroglyph to ward off Evil !. This Evil that stands at their door is however eternal and having immediately fed upon the blood of the livestock is almost at the peak of its power. This is the representation of Hitler’s vision for the master race. An undying, unyielding Arian juggernaut, spawned from the satanic embers of Hell itself.

Wirth conjures up a malevolent maelstrom as a necromancer, resurrecting the dead around him to use against the living, in order to cross the protective boundary keeping him from his final feast. Frenzied attacks upon the house and its few remaining living occupants follow. The most incredible of all, and one of the truly staggeringly original moments in recent screen horror, is the sequence involving a horse brought back to life and sent charging into the property. The sight of a possessed killer horse raising up and kicking out as it charges into the house with evil intent towards man is unbelievably well done !. Victor and Evan blast the beast with guns and hack at it with knife and cleaver to bring it down in the most out of control on screen savagery witnessed in quite some time. How the sequence is achieved without resorting to completely fake CGI will be open to viewer conjecture and discussion long after the movie closes.

Imagine The Evil Dead (1981) meets TV’s Supernatural, as on screen bothers Victor (Dominic Purcell) and Evan (Henry Cavill) play older, wiser, and tougher variants of Sam and Dean Winchester from the Cult show.

The cut and thrust of the movie lies in the solid direction and well staged Action of the piece, never allowing proceedings to falter for even a moment. The story is straight forward but unpretentious in its telling from start to finish. This then is a genuine little gem of a mid budgeted movie that gives its mainstream rivals a real kicking in the value for money, entertainment stakes.

Unabashed, unrelenting and under the radar movie majesty doffs its cult in the making crown with Blood Creek. If this be the House Of Führer Frankenstein you are all urged to knock at its doors. Horror has come home.

http://geeksofdoom.com/2010/02/18/dvd-review-blood-creek/

DVD Review: Blood Creek

WordSlinger Posted by WordSlinger | February 18th, 2010 at 4:47 pm | Trackback

Blood Creek DVDBlood Creek
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Starring Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender, Emma Booth
Lionsgate and Gold Circle Films
Release Date: January 19, 2010

Those Nazis were into some weird stuff, and despite being defeated 65 years ago, filmmakers are still finding ways to make them the villains. In the case of Blood Creek, the villain is a single Nazi, Professor Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender), who travels to America prior to WWII in search of mysterious runestones. His search brings him to the farm of a German family in Town Creek, West Viriginia. Wirth, a student of the occult, finds what he’s looking for — an ancient runestone he believes holds the secret to immortality — but not before war breaks out.

Seventy years later, Victor Marshall (Dominic Purcell) disappears for nearly two years in the same town. When he reemerges in the middle of the night looking like a tortured caveman, he refuses to explain his absence to his brother Evan (Henry Cavill) and demands his help. Evan does as he is asked without getting the details. Personally, if my feared-dead brother suddenly reappeared after two years looking like he had been through hell and demanded I grab as much ammo as possible and follow him, I would probably ask a question or two.

Evan, and the audience, quickly discover both Wirth and the family who owns the farm have been trapped in a cycle of black magic that has kept them all from aging. Despite being trapped on the wrong side of the Atlantic, Wirth was able to use his skills and the runestone to extend his life indefinitely. Somehow, the family was able to discover his plans use a small amount of his own magic to keep Wirth on their property. Wirth needs fresh blood from a living person to keep his powers strong, so he uses his magic to keep the family from aging. After decades of being fed on, the family began kidnapping unlucky locals to take their place. But 70 years is a long time to scheme, and after all the time that has passed, Wirth believes he has found a way to escape the binding spell placed upon him.

That’s the long version. The short version is two brothers fight a Nazi warlock with shotguns. That is really all you need to know to decide if this is your cup of tea. This is not the most original plot. In fact, its incredibly similar to the premiere episode of a short-lived NBC series from 2008 called Fear Itself, only that show featured a vampire instead of a warlock.

Despite the somewhat cheesy premise, Blood Creek never bites off more than it can chew. The premise is fairly straightforward and there are no big twists or unnecessary complications. The fact that the setting is a single location for 90 percent of the film and the unbelievable details can all be explained by the all-encompassing “black magic,” keeps things simple… relatively speaking. People doing terrible things for a greater good, and two innocent people caught in the middle of a long battle.

Despite the title, the creek is never shown, but there is quite a bit of blood on screen at most times. It’s doubtful you’ll be on the edge of your seat, but the action is enough to be entertaining.

There are no real bonus features to speak of other than a commentary track with Schumacher. Considering this is the man who brought us nipples on Bat suits and the Number 23, Blood Creek is surprisingly okay. Though mostly forgettable, the film maintains its gritty atmosphere throughout, the special effects are fairly decent and the story never oversteps its bounds.

http://reapergaming-movies.blogspot.com/2010/02/townblood-creek-horse-vs-shotgun.html

Monday, February 22, 2010
TOWN/BLOOD CREEK - horse vs shotgun hilarity

So this is where Joel Shumacher's been. After camply violating Batman in such a prison-rape manner that the entire franchise was aborted and started from scratch it seems poor old Joel's cred dropped a tad (no one really seemed to escape unscathed from the cataclysmic clusterf**k that was Batman and Robin....Batgirl and Robin disappeared entirely, possibly to hermit-like existences on remote islands far from any televisions or dvd players, and only George "Teflon" Clooney seemed to keep a career going, although his acting seems now to consist of being slightly fat and intense, or just playing himself. Which he is, admittedly, very good at.) And Joel? Despite being famously derided by drug-fueled megaproducer julia phillips as "a better window-dresser than director" in the highly enjoyable marathon bitch-fest autobiography that was "You'll never eat lunch in this town again" he's actually turned out a few decent flicks among the dross. Falling down? Lost boys? Joel...youre okay by me. So Town Creek..a troubled production, shot in eastern europe on a clearly limited budget, and has been sat on a shelf for a couple of years, hidden away like a paedophile uncle in a family photograph. The omens are not promising.

But....it's alright. Its a solid, if unspectacular horror siege flick, mainly concerning a couple of ex-military brothers and a family trapped in their farm by a cenobite-y nazi necromancer that lives in their root cellar. Its not gory or scary enough to generate any t'internet buzz, but its fast, nicely shot and contains an absolutely brilliant scene where a freshly-resurrected zombie horse breaks into the kitchen and gets shredded by multiple shotgun blasts at close range. Something I havent seen before, at least in a movie.

Bit of irish interest in the cast as well, with Dominic Purcell (the butch older non-gay brother in the interminable Prison Break) and Michael Fassbender (the posh english officer in Inglorious Basterds, the unfortunate chavling- fodder in rather unpleasant brit horror Eden Lake) It's probably not high on their respective cvs, but if you fancy a mildly diverting 90 minutes of shouting, whispered plot development and more farmyard carnage than a PETA video, check this one out.

http://www.dignews.com/reviews/blood-creek/

Blood Creek

Schumacher tries his hand at schlock and burns the pot

Tags: misc dvd 2010 Categories: DVD/TV Reviews, Reviews

Posted by Mike "Two Tone" McConnell on Feb 26th, 2010
Title Information

blood creek dvd boxBlood Creek takes the cake for finding a way to combine Nazi’s, Rednecks, and horror into a miasma of horror clichés. The film opens in sepia, letting you know that we’re in the past and it’s going to be creepy. Immediately we see a pig fighting for its life as two men drag it to slaughter. Thus cruel and superfluous scene trades in the same sort of suffering that modern horror takes to much stock in. Every victim begs and squeals like that big, and the violence is casual and gratuitous.

This trend started with Saw and Hostel, and now great horror is gone. Even the great 80’s franchises of Freddy and Jason weren’t inherently cruel. They were surely gory, but at the same time campy and distant. These were already miles away form the great 70’s horror like The Omen. Blood Creek and The Omen don’t even feel as if they are in the same genre. Then you add Joel Schumacher to the mix, and you have something entirely beyond the realm of good taste.

I have to cede that Blood Creek at least gave an interesting premise. The Nazi’s had sent an agent to rural West Virginia, who finds a stone which holds the key to some occult power. The German family paid to house agent finds out they are in for a lot more than a few extra dishes. Flash forward 60 years and we meet the paramedic in another gory scenes that would have been best left on the cutting room floor. Paramedic Evan Marshall is trying to stop a spurting chest wound while the police hold a woman waving a pistol at bay. All of this is done is quick cuts before the trailer explodes.

Evan is played by Henry Cavill. Cavill either follows behind co-star Dominick Purcell dumbfounded, or stops to show his compassionate side. Purcell is the real star of the show as Evan’s brother Victor. Victor disappeared after a camping trip to celebrate his return from Iraq. We find out that during his disappearance, Victor was held by the same family that we met in the sepia time period. The brothers rush off to the farm shooting everything in sight only to discover that the family was feeding the Nazi they were sent so many years ago. Something supernatural was afoot, and they all live outside of time. However the Lunar Eclipse is tonight, and now Victor has helped set him free, allowing him to complete his quest for immortality.

Purcell is capable enough as an action star, his stint on Prison Break proved it. The problem he has here is that Schumacher still thinks he can write. So the action stops for exposition that would seem overwrought for a Star Wars prequel. The big bad villain is played by Michael Fassbender, but he is missing any sort of life. In fact the various people and animals that he brings back to life to attack are far more terrifying. Schumacher has thrown everything into this film hoping for a potboiler, but that’s an insult to the form.

Schumacher’s commentary is the only special feature to speak of, a testimony to his absolute narcism as a filmmaker. There are whole scenes that seem to be put in just to fill some time, as the movie would end up under 90 minutes. The plot is a mess of over-exposition, and his monster is less frightening than his minions. This fails as both an action and a horror movie. Head over to Netflix and get some classic horror to save yourself.

What Works Score
+ Purcell is capable at the action scenes
+ Neat concept 3.0
What Doesn't
- A horror movie where the monster is outdone by its minions misses the point
- Exposition is dry and overwrought
- Lots of filler
- Zero special features beyond the wild ramblings of Joel Schumacher
Under the Shrink-wrap
Poor execution mars a neat concept, and you can tell by how hard the attempt to overdress the plot that this was little more than an Outer Limits episode, not a film.

http://www.freddyinspace.com/2010/02/end-of-world-immortal-nazi.html

The basic premise of Blood Creek is this - a Nazi has found the key to immortality and he cannot be stopped. An immortal nazi, is that not the greatest plot ever for a horror film? I'm all about Nazi horror and Schumacher's latest horror effort is one of the best in that sub-genre. It's totally original, gory as all hell, completely off the wall, and features one of the scariest and most memorable villains in recent years - played by the continually impressive Michael Fassbender. I don't know about you, but those are all the ingredients I look for in horror flicks. There were several moments throughout this movie where I literally out loud said "wow" and that doesn't happen often for a jaded horror buff like myself. Yes there is some bad acting and some bad CGI, but one of those faulty CGI scenes is such a cool scene that could've only been pulled off with CGI, so I forgive it. In fact, I forgive any and all flaws Blood Creek may have because it is so f#%@#&! awesome and different. Joel, I think I finally forgive you for the nipple suits.
Posted by Johnny at 1:06 PM

http://www.scarymovies.org/blood-creek-2009/

Blood Creek (2009)

by Stuart Conover on March 14, 2010

Its original UK release had the film known as Town Creek but the name was changed to Blood Creek when it was released in the United States. The film was directed by Joel Schumacher who has quite a few amazing films under his belt (including a personal favorite of mine 8MM) though also quite a few that fell short. While not all of his work falls into horror he does have a few key films set in both horror and suspense and knows how to put a film together. The writing credit falls to David Kajganich who is a little newer having only one screenplay written before it. The quality of his work shows through quite well through this one and he has 3 more movies being written. My only worry is that two of them are remakes of classics and I hope he writes the screenplays for It and Pet Cemetery in a way to do them justice as pissing off the Stephen King fans, with remakes of 2 classic films, will surely hurt his chances for much after that.

Now going into this film I had heard mixed reviews. After seeing the film I ultimately believe it was a bias against Schumacher for a few of his films that were utterly painful to watch. If you can put those thoughts aside while watching the film as I did I believe you’ll have a great time. We open with a German family on a farm in the middle of nowhere in the World War 2 era who receive a letter that a scholar is coming to stay on their farm. While the mother is against the idea initially the check they are offered to keep the scholar up swayed any decision against finding out more away and they agreed to do it. His first night there he points out that Germany will soon rule the world and we find out he is on a mission for the Nazi regime to recover ancient artifacts that can provide immortality. Apparently there were multiple artifacts left in the United States when ancient Vikings first found the continent and the Nazi’s want them. The scholar that comes to town, Professor Wirth (Michael Fassbender), finds the first relic and ends the introduction apparently cutting the daughter and fading out of scene.

We cut to modern day as the modern day as a man, Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill), is being lectured by his father that his older brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell), has been missing for over two years and blames him for it happening. That night out of the blue the older brother reappears and insists there is no time and they need to go out immediately to have revenge on the family that has kept him captive and tortured him for the past 2 years. While his brother is at first hesitant just happy his brother is back when he sees the scars on his back he agrees to go with him. We see them sneak up on the house where the family is at (which is the same house shown in the introduction) and once we have the family rounded up appear to be seeing the same family from nearly 60 years before -un ravaged by the passage of time. Soon after the Nazi shown in the introduction reappears, infused with power making him stronger than a normal man and quite angry for the situation he is described to be in.

This movie was a true shock on how well it was portrayed. When you combine a lower budget film (even with amazing production value) with a Nazi mastermind who is nearly immortal and went straight to DVD you expect nothing great. When you keep in mind that a large slew of his films haven’t been great you will further be worried. Don’t be. If it at all sounds like something you may enjoy watching I recommend picking it up immediately as I was truly surprised at how enjoyable and worth watching this film was.

Editor’s Rating
Scary 4 stars
Suspense 3 1/2 stars
Overall Rating 4 stars

http://lazloscloset.blogspot.com/2010/03/blood-creek-review.html

Friday, March 19, 2010
BLOOD CREEK Review

Everyone knows Hitler LOVED the occult. Ever since Adolf tried and failed to take that Ark from Indiana Jones, the Furer had made several other attempts to make the powers of darkness his own. He also tried to steal the Rocketeer's jet pack at one point but that's another post entirely...

Blood Creek (Originally Creek, and Town Creek) tells the unfortunate tale of the Wollner family of West Virginia, who came into possession of a rune stone, a flat rock three times the size of a sewer cap carved with ancient runes. The stone was found on the Wollner's property and they decided to build it into the foundation of their barn, if it was for luck, then it was all bad, because some time later they received a visitor from the fatherland who knew about the stone the family had found and had plans to use it. His name is Wirth (Michael Fassbender), a student of the occult and Nazi officer sent to obtain the power of the stone. Soon after making contact with the rune stone Wirth makes quick work of the Wollner family feeding off of their blood to gain more power. For if one can master the blood, there is no death.

Flash forward to present day. We meet paramedic Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) who cares for his ailing father and his nephews. His brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) has been missing for the past two years after returning from Iraq. While Evan is being slowly beaten down by guilt from all angles about his brother's disappearance, he is awakened in the middle of the night by Victor, now bearded with long hair and covered in scars and blood. In a frantic rage Victor asks for his brothers help. They grab whatever guns and ammo they can find in the house and drive off. Evan asks repeatedly where they are going and what is going on but Vic keeps driving until they reach a rundown farm surrounded by no trespassing signs and strange symbols painted everywhere.
It turns out Victor had been held prisoner in a large storage container in the back yard of the farm tied down and used for his blood by the very same people who owned the farm in 1936, the Wollners. As Victor questions the family and searches for his torturer Evan stumbles across a man tied up in the storage container (Shea Whigam) and releases him. During Vic's assault on the German immigrant family he shoots the father as he returns from town in his truck, hitting him in the shoulder causing him to drive into the cellar which was chained and locked and had a huge rune symbol painted over its doors. BIG MISTAKE...

Wirth, the Nazi officer who has held the Wollner family as blood slaves for decades is now super powerful and loose from his prison in the cellar... I'm not completely clear on how they caught him and tricked him into the cellar...but I know Liese (Emma Booth) the youngest child of the Wollner's who now appears as a seventeen year old, read Wirth's books which were full of incantations and learned about the power of the rune letters and with that knowledge the family was able to keep him out of the house by painting protective runes over all the doors and windows and imprison him.

Now the Brothers Marshall are trapped in the house with the apparently immortal Wollner family along with a man they freed from the storage container in the back ( who replaced Victor after his escape. Unable to enter the house himself, Wirth uses his powers to raise members of the Wollner family from the dead to serve him. As they are killed trying to defend themselves. There's also a cool scene where Wirth releases the stable horses and slashes their throats and then raises them from the dead and uses them to gain entry into the magically protected house.

Now here's where it gets a little dicey... Apparently Wirth brought along a suitcase full of his family bones (I know I do when I travel) which Liese discovers can be made into armor to protect the wearer from Wirth's evil magic. Vic dons the rickety armor and faces off with the undead Nazi, and it doesn't seem to have much effect as Wirth kicks Vic's ass across the farm for a good five minutes. That's when Liese explains to Evan that Wirth cannot feed from his own families blood, it is poison to him, So Evan uses himself as bait and has Liese cut him across the back as a proper scarifice and grind in the marrow from the broken bones from the armor. Wirth takes the bait and feeds from Evan and the dried up blood of his ancestors acts like a mouth full of draino. Now weakened the undead SS Officer gives Vic and Evan an opening to finish him off.

Nazi's are still everyone's favorite bad guys and I think Wirth could have been cool enough to join the horror franchise pantheon as a repeat character if a proper back story was created. Though there is probably no sequel for Wirth who buys the Hof (Farm) VERDERBER! [ Spoiler in German...] The film is set up for a sequel when Evan discovers there were actually EIGHT Nazi officers who were sent to claim the rune stones that were discovered. So Evan grabs his gun and map and goes after the remaining seven blood suckers and Victor is last scene with the Rune stone in the burned rubble of the Wollner farm. Is he contemplating using that power for himself? A brother against brother battle would be pretty sweet.

I enjoyed Blood Creek, Even if there was no creek. It's a great renter for sure. I also give Joel Schumacher props for not putting big rubber nipples on Wirth's outfit...OK, I know Batman and Robin was a long time ago...I have trouble letting go. The lighting was excellent throughout the film making it easier to forget you are watching a movie shot on digital, and the packaging was really what hooked me in the first place, It's amazing. So check this one out, if you haven't already.

I think I would haf prefered da Bat Nipples

Posted by Phil at 6:13 PM

http://svearikeslag.se/movie/wordpress/?p=684

BLOOD CREEK (2009)

Thank you, ”Blood Creek”, for pulling me out of my slump that I´ve been in lately. Like a true friend you saw that I wasn´t doing too well and came to the rescue with exactly what I needed: a big dose of good old fashioned fun in the shape of unpretentious, blood stained horror. I gotta admit that I didn´t expect very much when I sat down to watch this one. The only thing I knew about it was that it was directed by Joel Schumacher and that it featured Nazis, in one form or another. Now, some of you out there might argue with me when I tell you that I actually try to watch every new Joel Schumacher movie that´s being released. I like the guy even though he is the man responsible for the decay of Batman back in the 90´s. Say what you will about “Batman & Robin” and I´m not gonna argue with those of you out there who thinks that that movie is the cinematic equivalent of Japanese water torture, but if I´m gonna level with you I think that no matter how you look at it, that movie is pretty entertaining in all its glorious failure. The only thing that comes close has to be “Battlefield Earth”.

But aside from the fantastic failure that is “Batman & Robin” and the weird decision to put nipples on Batman´s costume, let´s not forget that Schumacher actually have been responsible for quite a number of really, really good movies and at least one bona fide classic. Naturally, I´m talking about “The Lost Boys”. I gotta admit that maybe it isn´t the greatest vampire movie ever and it doesn´t hold up particularly well today but you can´t deny its place in pop culture. It´s thanks to this movie that we haven´t been able to get rid of Corey Feldman and why he´s still lurking around the outskirts of Hollywood, claiming to be an actor.

And let´s not forget that Schumacher is the guy behind such great movies as “Falling Down” and “Phone Booth”. But the weird thing is that one minute he´s making a great film like gritty Vietnam drama “Tigerland” and the next he´s making “Bad Company”, which is so stupid that it makes MTV look like the work of a genius. So he´s a bit uneven to say the least, our boy Schumacher… That´s why I didn´t know what to expect from “Blood Creek”, which was released straight-to-DVD, none the less! That didn´t bode very well for the quality of this movie, either.

But guess what? Sometimes the movie gods look down on you, smile and says “You know what, you´ve been through a lot lately and you´ve seen some pretty sh*#&% movies so we´re gonna give you this one. We know that you like horror movies, right? Check. How about the occult? Check. We´re gonna throw some Nazis in there, as well, just for good measures, how do you feel about that? You like that, too? That´s amazing, you´re really gonna enjoy this one. Tell you what, we´re even gonna throw a monster in there as a special treat, just for you. Enjoy!”

Now, before I let you in on what the damn flick is about I´m gonna have to recommend that you watch this one before you continue reading. Much of my own personal enjoyment came out of the fact that I didn’t know much about what was about to happen or what to expect. That, and the fact that I had imbibed a fair amount of alcohol before watching it. Just kidding. Here´s what it´s about:

In 1936, the Wollners – a German family living in rural Morgan County, West Virginia – are contacted by the Third Reich to host a visiting scholar, Professor Richard Wirth (played by the excellent Michael Fassbender). In need of money, they accept Wirth into their home, without knowing much about him or his mission. After 71 years, 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 what appears to be revenge.

Now, this is a very un-typical movie for Schumacher to make. If I didn´t know it, I never would´ve guessed that he directed it. The movie starts with a prologue, filmed in grainy black-and-white, which shows us how Wirth arrives at the family´s farm. This kinda sets the tone for the movie, without revealing too much what the movie will be about. Fassbender is great in this scene and manages to be both charismatic yet creepy at the same time.

The other ace that Schumacher´s got up his sleeve in this prologue is the farmhouse itself. He´s managed to find a great location, which really sets the mood later on in the movie, as most of it takes place at this farm. It´s a single house in the middle of nowhere and don´t ask me what the hell they grow on that farm because it looks pretty g*&^%$# barren to me but who cares? It looks great! It´s desolate and windy in that way that only farms in horror movies can be.

Now, as I´m sure that you´ve followed my advice to watch the movie before you continued reading this, I am about to go into detail a bit more so here´s one of those (SPOILER!!!)-alerts for those of you who needs it spelled out, ok? What I found so enjoyable about this flick is the fact that Schumacher managed to keep the tension and suspense of what´s about to happen alive for a surprisingly long time. Even up until the two brothers arrive at the farm and the bloodletting starts, you´re still not sure what it is that this family actually has done. Schumacher could´ve fumbled the ball on that, but he doesn´t. I mean, let´s be honest here: it´s not like Akira Kurosawa directed the movie. I love the guy but let´s not forget that this is the guy who tried to assassinate our eyes with the sight of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Dr. Freeze, spouting lines such as “Tonight´s weather forecast: It will… freeeeezeeeee….” For being that guy, he shows some considerable restraint here and the movie benefits from it.

I think that the guy who wrote the script, David Kajganich, probably deserves some credit too because he´s managed to come up with a wonderfully economic story with some brilliantly sparse dialogue. For instance, when Victor has returned after disappearing all those years ago, Evan tells him:

- We searched every inch within ten miles

- Well, you missed me…

Then we see Victor hand Evan a shotgun and tells him to get ready to bust into the house and Evan demands a reason, since he has no idea why he´s doing this. Victor then calmly tells him:

- I´m the reason…

I don´t know about you but I´m a sucker for that kind of dialogue. “A man´s gotta do what a man´s gotta do” and so on. You know the deal. I´m not saying that the acting is top notch, though. I´ve always had a problem with this guy Dominic Purcell, ever since he played one of the stiffest vampires in the history of stiff vampires in “Blade: Trinity”. He didn´t exactly set the TV screen ablaze on “Prison Break”, either. He´s a bit of a dud, actually, but I´m willing to let that one slide here because this movie is just too much fun! And fortunately, we´ve got Michael Fassbender in that small role so he evens out the amount of acting talent just by showing up in the g*&^%$# film.

All in all, this one is worth seeking out. Schumacher manages to throw some pretty respectable gore in there and the fight sequences doesn´t feel too choreographed, which is always a good thing. When they fight, they really go at it and it not the usual “I hit you and then I wait so that you can hit me”-kind of s$#!. Instead they tumble around and stumble every now and then. Kind of like when two angry-as-hell people go at each other in real life.

Schumacher also managed to make some inspired choices here and there, like the scene where our heroes have to fight a “possessed” horse. I´ve never seen that before and it didn´t feel too computer generated, which I was shocked to notice. I mean, this is a straight-on-DVD-flick we´re talking about here! One that doesn´t reeks of a perversely low budget, as well! Jumpin´ Jesus Christ! It´s even got an orchestral score (or what sounds like it, anyway), which always contributes to setting the right mood. Unless your name is John Carpenter, that is. Then it´s ok to use a synthesizer.

One thing I noticed, though: this guy Evan who is apparently making his living as a nurse or medic or something along those lines (as we are shown at the beginning) should really think about a career change. He doesn´t seem to know what he´s doing. At one point, a character is having trouble breathing and is very close to choking to death. Evan runs to the rescue and his first question is this: “Do you have any aspirine?”

Now, I´m not a trained professional in any way and even though I can understand that dying could be a painful thing, I just can´t see how an aspirine would help this guy in his situation. I don´t know what you paid for your education, Evan, but I think you should consider asking for a refund.

Have a nice Easter and until next time: take scare!

Thomas

http://www.weekinrewind.com/2010/06/blood-creek-dvd-review.html

"Blood Creek" DVD Review

6/09/2010 Posted by Admin

DVD Review

Directed by Joel Schumacher, Written by Dave Kajganich, 91 Minutes, Rated R

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti

In pre-WWII era West Virginia, a German family takes an offer to house a historian named Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender) under the request of the SS. Wirth tells the family he seeks ancient Nordic runes, one of which is buried by their home. He tells them he intends on studying it.

Years later, present day, a paramedic named Evan Marshall is confronted by his brother Victor, who has been missing for two years. Victor tells Evan he's been held captive at a farm, and he asks Evan to return with him to seek revenge on the family there. Things aren't quite what they seem--upon their arrival, the family panics, telling them to go, but the family is familiar.

It's the same family that housed Wirth all those years ago. They haven't aged, and their farmhouse is covered in symbols drawn in blood. Wirth was no historian. He was one of many agents sent from Nazi Germany to find and study ancient occult artifacts in order to bring about the immortality of the master race, and when the family learned of this, they locked him away in their cellar, giving him stray people to feed on so that he wouldn't kill them and unleash his havoc on the rest of the world. Through the years studying the runes, Wirth has become powerful, and after escaping the cellar, the Marshall brothers have no choice but to prevent the monster from escaping the farm and fulfilling his plan for immortality.

Joel Schumacher is a real hit-or-miss kind of director. The majority of people know him for his relentlessly campy Batman films, but he's managed to put out some relatively great work as well, with films such as "Falling Down" and "Phone Booth." "Blood Creek" is not one of those films. In fact, I'd go so far as to say his laughable Batman movies have nothing on this.

The shame is that it starts out pretty well. The flashback introducing Fassbender's character, shot in an unsettling and pretty gorgeous black and white, is really stellar filmmaking. Intense, intriguing, beautifully shot--excellent set-up for the story. If only it were a different story.

The whole Nazi obsession with occult that served as a major element in goofy old grindhouse shlock could conceivably make for a very frightening and fascinating film. Really, that's the case for occult in general. People fear what they don't understand, and the occult is very mysterious. But time after time, filmmakers choose to use it as a device for cheesy, over-the-top horror instead of something more terrifying at the gut level, something unnatural and inconceivable that the audience can fear because it could happen to anyone. And it works well mixed with Nazis, evidently. I suppose they just make good bad guys.

"Blood Creek" had a chance at using the Nazi occult for something truly original and horrific. That looks to be the case for about 20 minutes--then, the zombie horses show up. Somebody should really look into making "unleash the zombie horses" the new "jump the shark."

The film falls apart in its second act, where the two main characters hold up in the farmhouse with the German family and face off against Wirth and his army of various zombified animals and corpses. There's a stretch for about 10 minutes where CGI horses run around the house, taking dozens of bullets and catching on fire. To call it embarassing might be an understatement.

Schumacher seems to be a very talented director. The opening sequence alone is proof of this. He has a wonderful visual sensibility and he definitely has a way with building tension. Apparently, it's where he goes with that tension that really makes or breaks his work. And boy, is this film broken.

Fassbender's great, as usual, and his performance alone keeps the film from being unbearable. He and Schumacher's direction aside, "Blood Creek" couldn't be more of a miss.

Grade: D