Blood 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.

Professor 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.

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.