Blood Lake (2014)
| Title: | Blood Lake |
| Director: | James Cullen Bressack |
| Writer(s): | Anna Rasmussen, Delondra Williams |
| Cast: | Shannen Doherty, Jason Brooks, Zack Ward, Christopher Lloyd... |
| Genre(s): | Creature Feature |
| Release Date: | 2014 |
“Wot!”
“Splat, you gone NUTS!”
All this stated in a Pommie accent!
An The Asylum film review on Extreme Horror Cinema; one made for Animal Planet.
“But, Splat, you a sick fuck into Underground and Indie horror insanity!”
Well now dear readers hear me out!
This writer loves many different genres with the realm of cinema and if I feel a film has merit I will take a gander…for my non-Aussie readers that means take a look in Aussie lingo, you learn something every day! I had known about Blood Lake, on this online screener known as Lamprey, as it is a James Cullen Bressack film event. James is a great guy I first learnt about here thanks to some threads by our esteemed founder and film nut woodenheart! He is a young filmmaker going places with a wide range of different flavours in his horror films. From his debut My Pure Joy (2011) to up the upcoming Pernicious (2015) James certainly has brought us a fairly wide variety of films in his four short years of filmmaking! So when he asked me in an e-mail would I like to review this I jumped at the chance to check it out and share my thoughts on…
“Looks like an anus with teeth!”
No; this isn’t C.L. Gregory’s pornographic horror movie Blood Lake (2006) or apparently one of the worst slashers ever, Tim Boggs’ Blood Lake (1987) but…
Lamprey
Lamprey of got into a lake system after killing off all the fish and now are hungry for more blood…
A Fisheries Ranger has moved into town to assist the local Rangers with this issue of over population. With him came his family of wife and two children.
Soon he discovers the lamprey of found a new source of food…human blood!
A small town that requires revenue from people holidaying in the summer time to enjoy the water, a Mayor who is stubborn and wants an easy solution! Lamprey who are starving and the man who wants to eradicate them before they get into Lake Michigan thus every waterway in the United States.
Terror dwells in the water…and, soon, out of it!
I love made for TV horror movies, just something about the that really pull me in for a good time, TV munchies and my can of Pepsi Next. I time I come away from feeling good, obviously for the most part, as in any genre of filmmaker there is plenty of crap out there. On top of this I love creature features as well, but then who who love horror don’t love these films? On top of this it is an James Cullen Bressack; a guy who loves horror and who isn’t afraid to chose to do new things.!
Blood Lake got me this above feeling of “hey I had a good time!” With its promise of creature feature mayhem, decent characters that don’t annoy, a ‘Jaws Rip-off’ storyline that worked. It did what it was meant to do, entertain for an hour and a half!
As just mentioned Lamprey belongs in the ‘Jaws Rip-off’ sub genre and for some of us that isn’t a bad thing. This has it’s own take, of people going missing, the culprit being unmasked, a mayor who is more concerned with money, more bloody mayhem and then obvious end. I would have to say Blood Lake is more inline with 1979’s Piranha with the fact there is many critters causing death and destruction.
Yes!
There is plenty of underwater swimming Lamprey but the laws of TV Horror Movie Mayhem allow for this. These are meant as purely entertainment thus the CGI is allowed. Some of it is really cheesy while other times it works way better. Maybe they could have gone for similar effects as they did in Piranha but then maybe James had no choice either. But lucky for us, there is practical effects as well; my favourite being the eye pulled out of it’s socket scene!
We do get cheese in this; of things happening that made me go wtf and smile. A Power Line tower gets knocked over, one of our heroes warns of lampreys coming up behind then the next scene no sign of them though they were seen before hand. But hey that’s fine as it adds some cheese to the meal!
In the end Blood Lake sets out to do what it is meant to, entertain! Unsure how James Cullen Bressack ended up doing a film for Animal Planet under The Asylum but I am glad he did. He pulled of a good film where it could of gone terribly wrong and kooky! Worth watching if like me you either love made for TV horror movies, creature features, JCB films or hell, all three!
