Blood River

Andrew Howard steals the show and I would never have guessed he is Welsh as he gives the Texan accent a new swirl and definitive performance par excellence.

Amazing photography, lush landscapes from the initial sweeping road quadcopter zoom to the abandoned hell town of Blood River, acting is great all round and the music and atmosphere is superb. Watch it and weep and maybe watch it twice as there is a lot in this that you won't take in first time round for sure!

A movie with depth and meaning that might be lost on some and a moral lesson for society and pretty current with what is happening all over the world to the little children!

Great movie; ranks alongside Dust Devil as my favourite desert scene horor mystery movie!

Adam Mason has quickly become one of our favorite directors at The Liberal Dead. He has an uncanny ability to take next to no budget, and create something that will blow your mind. "Blood River" is his best film to date, and a true cinematic masterpiece. The story follows Summer(Tess Panzer) and Clark(Ian Duncan) as they travel across the desert to tell Summer's parents that she is pregnant. A car crash that follows what I would say is the most interesting piece of film ever dedicated to a tire blow out, leaves them stranded. The film is set in 1969, so it's not quite as easy as just pulling out their iPhone and calling AAA. Clark, and Summer head out on foot to the nearest town, "Blood River". As the couple arrive, not only is there a cow carcass laying at the entrance to the town to greet them, but there are various skeletal remains scattered across the grounds, and nothing much else. It's completely abandoned. Soon, we're introduced to Joseph(Andrew Howard), who is seen from the distance, appearing out of nowhere. It's made immediately obvious that there's something not right about Joe, but they are so desperate for help at this point, that they're willing to overlook his quirks. Leaving Summer behind, Joseph, and Clark head off into the desert, in an attempt to salvage gas from the crashed car, and siphon it into Joseph's car. This is basically the top of the coaster. It was great up until this point, and the ride just gets better from here.

The cinematography in this film is nothing short of amazing. Ingenious camera angles, coupled with a gorgeous backdrop, and some stunning helicopter angles makes this Mason's most visually appealing movie to date. I really felt, from start to finish that this film should have gotten a wide theatrical release. Mason had a budget of $250,000 to finish this film in a time span of 18 days, so the end result is even more stunning.

"Blood River" isn't a gorefest, but I think it will still appeal to that demographic. It's raw, gritty, and psychologically brutal. Another thing that made me happy was the fact that it doesn't spoon feed it's plot to the viewer. It definitely knows the message it wants to portray, but it leaves a lot of it up to the viewer to decipher. It's rare that a filmmaker gives the audience this kind of credit, instead of insulting our intelligence with flash cut scenes to make sure we got the subtlety. "Blood River" is not like this, it's intelligent at it's core, and it assumes that those watching it are as well.

The acting is superb across the board, but Andrew Howard in particular puts in a powerhouse performance. He's done an amazing job in past films with Mason, but this performance alone put's him at the top of my list for genre favorites. From the moment that he is introduced, until the last frame, Howard is cool as hell.

The atmosphere created is astonishing. It's gritty, and dirty, but manages to be breathtakingly beautiful at the same time. The setting is on a far grander scale than Mason's previous work, spanning across what seems to be a vast desert wasteland, but it still manages to keep a strong level of isolation.

"Blood River" is not an easy film to slap a label on. While it will definitely appeal to fans of the horror genre, fans of really solid dramatic, psychological thrillers will be in for a treat as well. It blends genres seamlessly, and is most definitely Mason's most marketable film to date. For fans of His previous work, such as "Broken" and "The Devil's Chair", don't worry, this movie was made for you as well. It's not a cookie-cutter thriller, and it demands the audiences attention. You're not going to be spoon-fed anything, you're going to have to turn your brain on for this one.

The film is currently available in Germany, has just been listed for pre-order in the UK, and if I'm not mistaken, there will be an announcement shortly about Canadian distribution as well. Unfortunately, there is currently no details available for a US release date for the flick, so if you have some pull at a studio, watch this flick, love it, and make Mason a big fat offer for distribution, you won't regret it.

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A couple driving through the desert crashes their car due to a blowout and are left stranded. They decide to head for a nearby town called Blood Creek to search for help and meet a mysterious stranger who calls himself Joseph.

The film is directed by Adam Mason, a man whose greatest skill is creating great looking films for very little money, and the film does indeed look great. Unfortunately, it lacks the creative touch that was very apparent in his previous work The Devil's Chair (which I gave a very high score). Indeed, the film feels uninspired and watching it is a bit like going through the motions.

This is a shame, because there is a glimpse of something great hiding within the religious angle that the film takes. I wish that this had been explored in more depth, but instead this is covered by clichés that border on parody.

By far, the worst part of Blood Creek is the characterization of the two leads; the man is aggressive and loud, the woman is passive and dripping with tears. This is the case from the get-go and only gets worse as the film goes on. I assume that this is somewhat intentional, but it crosses the line between believable human flaws and annoying caricature.

The best part is the performance of Andrew Howard as the mysterious traveler Joseph. While he does have the best material to work with, it is pretty clear that he is the one with the acting chops and he pretty much carries the film single-handedly.

Despite the good craftsmanship (cinematography and sound is great), I would recommend watching something else. While Blood Creek is not offensively bad, it presents a handful of moments of annoyance and leaves no lasting impression.

The title conjures up images of some cheesy slasher flick, but Blood River is anything but. I've rented a few (well, more than a few) horror titles in my time with the word 'Blood' in the title. It seems to say a lot about the film, i.e. filled with gruesome deaths and maybe the odd rubbery monster thrown in for good measure.

However, Blood River definitely doesn't fit into those categories. At the beginning, I didn't like it. It starts off with the obligatory couple driving through the deserted deserts, only to come across the one wandering lunatic hell bent on making your final hours a living hell. It all sounds pretty average, but it's worth sticking with. Its one down point is that it is a little longer than your average horror film and most of the first 1h 15 minutes is spent watching three people in one location, having various conversations about all sorts of supposed deep and meaningful issues.

That was how it starts. It doesn't pan out quite so obviously though. Without going into too much detail, it has a few surprises along the way and Andrew Howard deserves a special mention as the 'stranger' Joseph who the unsuspecting couple meet.

Give it a watch if you want a 'horror movie that contains plenty of talking points.' However, the 'talking points' may also serve to be a bit of a let down. Not everything is totally explained and wrapped up neatly, leaving some questions which will be up to your interpretation afterwards.

Blood River is one of those movies where you could show it to four different people and be given four totally different opinions to its merits and meanings.

After The Devil's Chair, one could be forgiven for not wanting to bother with an Adam Mason film ever again. That wouldn't be the wisest course though, as Blood River is actually quite good. The seductively simple premise follows young couple Clark and Summer, heading to see her parents and announce her pregnancy. After a near fatal crash they land up in the deserted town of Blood River, wherein they make the acquaintance of chain smoking thoughtful hippie type Joseph. Here the fun begins, and I won't go too much into it but things pan out a little differently to how you might think. Now, with this kind of set-up, a film needs good actors and here the film shines. Ian Duncan is pretty handy as the at first cool but increasingly edgy Clark, a yuppie with a bit of a tweak to him while Tess Panzer is equally effective as the bright, pleasant and outgoing Summer. Andrew Howard really sets the film on fire as Joseph though, affability chased by shades of aggression, pulsing menace while drawling wisdom like a latter day seer. Once the three of them get down to interaction things never let up and they have mostly great chemistry, sparking off each other with tension steadily mounting. It's a slow burner with most of the excitement in the last half hour, but the film sets up its foundations well enough that things are fairly nerve rattling. The last half hour is where the film slips up though; it's hard to explain why without spoilers but basically, an important plot point is handled with a level of ambiguity that works against it. I'm all for ambiguity and films letting the audience figure things out for themselves, but here the shading of the point leaves the film morally at sea. Perhaps that was the intention, it certainly had me pondering it afterwards which is rarely a bad thing, but on the other hand I think this is a case where a more direct approach would have worked better. The film also comes into the problem at the end that (like The Devil's Chair), it really isn't as grisly as it should be. Sure there are a couple of good nasty scenes and things are pretty intense, but it misses a chance to really make an impact. Another complaint, though a smaller one is that at the beginning at least the film suffers from too much editing. The setting is wonderful and the cinematography sharp, so the short shot lengths are quite an irritation, they just don't do the location justice. Fortunately this either clears up or the drama covers it because I stopped noticing it after a while and an interesting atmosphere of hot, bleak isolation sets in. One last issue I had is that during some of the bigger dramatic moments the writing falters. Lines that seem a bit out of place or hammy, it brought me out of the film. Still, this is a good romp while it lasts, with Joseph standing out as a pretty fine effort to write an iconic character, some decent drama and a few gnarly scenes. It may lack a little in lasting punch and it has some niggling flaws, but I was pretty entertained throughout. Recommended if it seems like your sort of thing