Day 121: Blood Creek

Blood Creek

"Nazi Punks Fuck Off" - Dead Kennedys

After a weekend of wacky horror movies, it's time to get back to the serious ones. What better way than with an supernatural zombie Nazi trying to take over the world? I'm reminded of a line by Jon Lovitz from the underrated 2001 comedy “Rat Race,” “Eh, they're always pissed, Honey. They're Nazis. It's like it's their job.” This could be interesting...wait. Joel Schumacher directed this? Joel “Batman & Robin” Schumacher made a horror film? This I gotta see.

Blood Creek (also known as “Creek” and “Town Creek” because, I assume, they needed a really bland, unassuming name to draw in horror fans) is a 2009 horror movie starring Henry Cavill (Stardust, Man of Steel), as Evan Marshall. Evan is a paramedic in West Virginia. His brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell, Prison Break, Blade: Trinity), an Iraq veteran, went missing three years ago on a camping trip. Evan blames himself for his brother's disappearance and believes that he is dead. Much to his surprise, Vic returns in the middle of the night having escaped his captors and tells Evan that he needs his help. The travel up Town Creek until they reach an old farm. In 1936, a German family named the Wollners were contacted by the Nazi embassy to host a Professor Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender, Inglorious Basterds, X-Men: First Class) Wirth has been sent to the farm to uncover an ancient rune stone on their property and unlock it's occult powers. He is able to bring back creatures that have died and gains great power. The family is able to contain Wirth through magic, thus freezing their aging process. Keeping him prisoner requires the family to kidnap people and feed Wirth their blood. Vic was able to escape and now lays siege to the house, gaining a measure of revenge. Evan and Vic unwittingly release the monstrous Wirth who will become unstoppable once he consumes enough blood in time for a lunar eclipse. Will Evan, Vic, and Liese Wollner be able to stop Wirth before he becomes all-powerful and destroys the world?

Awesome

This movie can best be described as two separate movies; a pretty good emotional thriller and a generic, over-the-top B horror film. The first 40 minutes or so has a lot of exciting action and an air of mystery. The audience wants to know what exactly happened to Vic and wants to see him get revenge for losing three years of his life. The emotional heartstrings are pulled when we see Evan taking Vic's children trick-or-treating and when their father blames Evan for Vic's disappearance. Both Henry Cavill and Dominic Purcell put on very good performances The movie kicks into high gear when they attack the farm. It's good, heart-racing action with a touch of fear, not knowing what is going to be around the next corner. Initially, I was thinking the family would be a supernatural family of killers similar to the Firefly family from House of 1,000 Corpses/The Devil's Rejects. Unfortunately, they went off in a different direction and brought the whole movie crashing down.

Blood Creek gets bogged down in a poor, convoluted plot involving an immortal vampire/zombie Nazi that can raise the dead. He actually kills a horse and turns it into a zombie horse. Interesting and different, but not particularly good. It's never really clear why the family has to kidnap people to keep feeding Wirth. In the 70 years of keeping him prisoner, they couldn't figure some way of killing him? The whole drinking blood and lunar eclipse thing is all very convenient and cliched. Michael Fassbender does well enough in his role. He's a good evil Nazi and an ok monster. His makeup is pretty good looking, but the special effects could have been better. Joel Schumacher actually does a fairly good job in the director's chair, which makes his Batman Forever/Batman & Robin fiascoes all the more terrible.

Less awesome

This is really the tale of two movies. The first half of Blood Creek is grim, gritty, realistic and exciting. The second half is ridiculous, played out, and ultimately disappointing. The performances are good and there is a decent amount of action. When the movie decides to delve into the realm of horror, it loses all of it's steam and becomes a confused mess. If they had stayed away from the supernatural and just made this an escape and revenge movie, it would have been awesome.It's still better than Dawson's Creek, though.

6/10