BLOOD CREEK (2009)

Genre: Horror
Director: Joel Schumacher
Cast: Henry Cavill, Dominic Purcell, Emma Booth, Michael Fassbender
RunTime: 1 hr 32 mins
Released By:  Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: M18 (Violence And Gore)
Official Website:

Opening Day:  27 October 2011

Synopsis: 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 Ricard Wirth into their home, unaware of the Third Reich’s practices in the occult or Wirth’s real mission, which will keep the family bound for decades to come. Now, in 2007, after mysteriously disappearing two years ago near Town Creek, Evan Marshall’s older brother Victor suddenly returns, 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.. 

Movie Review:

One suspects that Joel Schumacher’s name has been forever besmirched in Hollywood after his infamously misguided decision to put ‘nipples on the Batsuit’ in “Batman and Robin”- yes that was the last Batman movie before Christopher Nolan rescued the franchise from the doldrums. After all, that about is the only reason we can think of why “Blood Creek” was unceremoniously released in just a handful of theatres in the United States before getting dumped on home video?

Sure, this occult-heavy flick isn’t a classic by any standards, but it is nonetheless a surprisingly well-made horror thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout its brief 90-min runtime. Yes, we might go as far as to say that despite the almost unanimous flak Schumacher has received for his movies in recent years, this is one of his leanest and most efficient works, a movie that knows what it has set out to do and accomplishes it handily.

A brief almost black-and-white prologue beautifully establishes an ominous tone- in 1936 West Virginia, a family of German immigrant farmers in post-Depression America receive a cheque in the mail from the German government in return for providing board and lodging for a historian from their home country. Turns out the family was selected for a much more sinister reason- their house sits on one of a few Viking runestones that could be the key to unlocking some dark power for the Third Reich.

Writer David Kajganich however chooses to set the bulk of the story in present-day America, where we are introduced to Evan (Henry Cavill, next-in-line to be Superman in the upcoming Zack Synder film), an EMT who has to grapple with a war hero brother Victor (Dominic Purcell) gone missing on a camping trip they took two years ago, and a father who constantly regards him as Victor’s lesser half. Schumacher wastes no time in getting to the meat (or rather the blood) of the plot, so soon after we first meet Evan, Victor suddenly returns one night to recruit Evan on a mission of vengeance.

The unquestioning manner by which Evan joins Victor on his quest for revenge is hokey to say the least, and one of the casualties of the breakneck pace Schumacher has adopted to tell the story. But anyhow, Victor soon reveals that he had been held captive at the same farm from earlier for the past two years, and has returned to kill a vampire living on the very premises. And oh, the German family from decades earlier? They don’t seem to have aged one bit.

As night falls, it becomes clear who Victor and Evan are up against- the very houseguest the German family was supposed to play host to, who apparently is on the verge of obtaining immortality and the power of the third eye. Their only refuge is the farm house, where the doors and windows have been painted with ancient symbols by the family’s teenage daughter (Emma Booth) designed to keep the creature out.

If you think this sounds familiar, it is, and Schumacher plays it out like a typical ‘house siege’ horror- a la “Night of the Living Dead” and “The Evil Dead”- where the occupants have to try to keep evil inhabitants from entering. So too must they stop the transformation of said creature, and the last third of the movie which builds up to an insanely tense climax that has Victor and Evan hatching a plan to kill the beast.

Admirable though it may be that Schumacher manages to keep at a breathless pace from start to finish, the film could very much do with stronger and more fleshed-out characters. Luckily, Prison Break’s Dominic Purcell and The Tudors’ Henry Cavill compensate with their engaging performances, making the best of what complexities and nuances of their brotherly bond that the script allows for. On the other hand, Michael Fassbender (who will play Magneto in the upcoming X Men: First Class) is completely wasted as the German historian turned vampire, his face hidden most of the time under heavy makeup.

But granted that Schumacher probably never made this film one to watch for the performances, going by the cavalier way he basically throws character development out of the window. He has meant this to be a straight-forward B-grade supernatural horror thriller that delivers action and thrills in equal measure, and in this regard, he succeeds handsomely. Lean, mean and brutal, “Blood Creek” has a violent simplicity you’ll appreciate. 

Movie Rating:

(A tense and terrifying supernatural horror thriller that unfolds at a relentless pace from start to finish)

Review by Gabriel Chong