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Blood Trails DVD Review
Review written by Daniel Benson
Released by Lionsgate UK
Directed by Robert Krause
Written by Robert Krause and Florian Puchert
2007, Region 2 (PAL), 87 Minutes, Rated 18 (UK)
DVD Released September 17th, 2007
Starring:
Rebecca Palmer as Anne
Ben Price as Chris
Tom Frederic as Michael
The Movie:
After cycle courier, Anne (Rebecca Palmer), ends up in bed with police officer, Chris (Ben Price), she is racked with guilt. She arranges a romantic few days away with her boyfriend, Michael (Tom Frederic). They plan to visit their cabin in the countryside and enjoy some off-road cycling.
But their mountain bike trek turns out to be unlike anything she could imagine, as a psychotic Chris shows up, and involves the pair in a twisted game of cat and mouse.
Review:
Wilderness horror is very much en vogue in genre filmmaking at the moment, and when you look at successful entries like The Descent or Wolf Creek it’s not difficult to see how this sub-genre has become so successful. No longer are people persecuted in the safety of their own homes, the great outdoors is where serial killers operate.
Which brings us neatly to Blood Trails, quite possibly the first horror movie set almost entirely on mountain bikes. And I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
While the idea is pretty good, and lends itself well to the plentiful outdoor scenes, there’s just far too much happening on the bikes. We get: lovers happily riding their bikes, lovers getting lost on their bikes, killer attacking lovers on his bike, girl fleeing on her bike, girl climbing hills carrying her bike, more chasing, more fleeing, more bikes… oh, you get the idea.
And as if the plethora of bike related scenes weren’t enough, the directing style is distinctly MTV. When there’s action, there are scene cuts every few seconds, when the pace is a little slower, we get cock-eyed camera angles and roaming hand-held footage.
Perhaps the biggest failing of Blood Trails is the characters. Although none of the cast could be criticised for less than admirable performances, there is absolutely no depth to the way any of the characters are written. There’s nothing to invest in, in any of them, so you end up watching people you don’t care about, spend too much time on their bikes riding round a forest and try to kill each other.
Blood Trails has a good premise, and a great location, and should have been a promising addition to the list of wilderness horror titles. Instead, it ends up being a little too much wilderness and not enough horror.
Audio, video and special features not rated as this was a screener disc.
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