Blood Creek

Blood Creek (a.k.a. Town Creek, or Creek) (2009)

Runtime: Approximately 85 minutes

Directed by: Joel Schumacher

Starring: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill, Michael Fassbender

From: Lionsgate Entertainment/Gold Circle Films

A quick story:

Last August Lionsgate Films released a movie called The Midnight Meat Train into theatres… but it was a rather odd story. To copy and paste my comments on the film from when I wrote about it on my Facebook/MySpace page last August:

“Wednesday night I went to the cheap second-run theatre in east Orlando to see a horror film called Midnight Meat Train. Now, it's a movie that came out just recently and yet it's already in there… it's a long story as to why Lion's Gate released it to the cheap theatres, but basically they changed regimes and they want to dick over the people that made the movie, so that's why it was only in about 100 crappy theatres. Horror fans were understandably pissed over this happening, as it was a highly anticipated movie that is based on a short story of the same name by famed horror author Clive Barker, probably best known for being the dude that wrote the story that became the Hellraiser movie. Overall, the movie was uneven but I ended up enjoying it. The kills were pretty great and bloody, and it was creepy also. Funnily enough, Vinnie Jones is also in it, along with Brooke Shields! Yes, Brooke Shields.”

I haven’t seen it since then, but that movie did not deserve the fate it got. I mean, it wasn’t that bad. It was shown in Orlando at the Touchstar Cinemas Colonial Promenade 6, which is a real old run-down place with non stadium seating and yeah, you get what you paid for in terms of price.

Well, I went back there as once again Lionsgate dumped a horror flick into these second-run theatres, and this time I believe it’s even less than they booked Meat Train into. As for the night I had going out to see this last night and what I thought of everything…

I drove over there and the place is the same it’s always been. Me and two random people were there, none of us knowing each other, and I don’t know if they heard about this movie due to its controversial release or what, but yeah, only three random people in there including me.

The movie is a horror flick about… it’s not easy to describe in short without unveiling massive spoilers, but I’ll try. It’s about a mysterious German man-a Nazi, at that-who visits a West Virginia farm in 1936, what happens there, and how that relates to that area in current times (i.e. 2007, when this movie was filmed. Yeah, it sat in the can for that long. More often than not, that’s not a good sign). What you get to see in this movie is a rather amazing mix of stuff. Besides Nazi’s, there’s the drinking of blood (I’ve heard the main creature in this flick a “vampire” but I wouldn’t really say that, as besides the blood drinking there’s nothing to say that’s what it is), Norse runestones, dead animals and human beings that can be revived and do evil things… I can sort of understand why Lionsgate wouldn’t want to release something as strange as this, although releasing it this way instead is rather insulting.

The most interesting thing is that it was directed by Joel Schumacher, the guy who’s done stuff like Falling Down, The Lost Boys, and even those two garish cartoony Batman movies in the 90’s (Batman Forever and the truly hideous Batman & Robin) so him doing something like this is pretty jarring.

As for the movie, it’s not as bad as those no-budget direct to DVD horror flicks that must be in the thousands now. You know, stuff that most people have never heard of, and much of it is bottom of the barrel garbage that student filmmakers probably would’ve done a better job on. But, it’s still a bad film. I mean, the story is totally ridiculous, full of plot holes, and doesn’t make much sense with even a little scrutiny. The villain is supposed to be a powerful… well, thing… but it can’t escape the farm and it can’t even enter the house on the farm due to contrived reasons! The ending of the movie is even more preposterous. So, while it’s not a dull movie by any means, it’s ineptly made at times (scenes switch from day to night or vice versa with no warning) and at times it’s clear Lionsgate meddled with it somehow. At least it moves quickly and it’s not too long. I guessed around 85 minutes as I didn’t stick around to the end of the end credits.

As others have said, I don’t know why they just didn’t include it with their annual January After Dark Horrorfest, where it at least would have played in regular first-run theatres. That’s also what they should’ve done with Meat Train, which I’ll say is clearly better than Blood Creek.

Check back late this upcoming weekend with my take on several other movies.