PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Blood Hunters is the latest film from director Tricia Lee and Film Monkey Productions and it tells the story of a single mother who wakes up in a medical facility to find out that she’s nine months pregnant and everyone around her is dead. As she struggles to escape, she discovers the facility’s dark secret; they’ve essentially cheated death and brought people back from the dead, but they aren’t alone.
Blood Hunters stars Lara Gilchrist as the lead, Ellie, and Benjamin Arthur as Henry, and these two gave standout performances. I especially want to highlight and praise Gilchrist’s performance. She is intense and really brings the character to life. She is, by far, my favorite part of the film, and is probably the best part of the film, period. Ellie is a tortured character, and you can see that through Gilchrist’s portrayal. Overall, the performances from everyone in the film were good. There was a biting sense of humor throughout the film that I really enjoyed. One of my favorite lines came from Ellie: “If this baby is a gift, it better come with a return policy.” The jokes never felt out of place, as they were more on the darker side of humor.
The film does have some highly tense moments. I can really only describe it as “the spatula scene,” but you basically see someone’s severed, melting hand get pried and scraped off of a hot stove. It builds up to that moment, and it’s extreme. Another moment is when Torri Higginson’s character, Marion, is trying to open a gate in the dark. She’s surrounded by the creatures and she’s fighting them off while trying desperately to get this gate open. It’s an intense scene, and it did get my heart racing. The atmosphere adds to the excitement of the film, as well. It’s dark and creepy and really reminded me of another creature film set in a hospital, The Void. That’s one of my favorite films of the year, so it’s definitely a good thing to be compared to.
Unfortunately, the reveal of the monsters just felt held back. You’re shown the destruction that these bloodthirsty creatures made, and I kept expecting to see something truly frightening. I just could not find a reason to be afraid of these monsters. Their appearance just did not do anything for me, and that’s disappointing. That’s really, in my opinion, what’s holding back the film. The gore in Blood Hunters is substantial, and it’s evident that these creatures are vicious. The fight scenes with them, however, weren’t too great. Yes, the scene where Marion is surrounded by them is intense, but it’s not because of the fight. It’s because of the scenario that she’s in. There’s a fight in the first half of the film where the creature seems to be defeated fairly easily. These issues didn’t ruin the movie, and didn’t make it a bad movie, but they kept it from being a great movie.
Overall, Blood Hunters is a perfectly passable film that just doesn’t reach what it should be. It reminded me of my favorite film of the year, but it didn’t hit the levels that it teased. Lara Gilchrist is phenomenal as Ellie, and the humor in the film is sharp and smart. It’s a tense film with a great atmosphere, but the reveal of the creatures just didn’t feel right. They weren’t very scary, and didn’t seem like they were capable of the violence that was shown in the beginning of the film. Blood Hunters has just recently become available to stream on VOD and is also available on DVD. Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think!
