Blood Hunters Review
Directed by Tricia Lee, one of only four female directors showcasing a film at this year’s Frightfest, Blood Hunters is an entertaining independent horror.
Ellie Barnes (Lara Gilchrist) is a single mother with a secret, she’s a drug addict. Struggling to juggle both the role of mother and her addiction she collapses after a school run. Things are only about to get worse though as when Ellie awakens she finds herself in an abandoned hospital, and even more worrying, she’s somehow nine months pregnant.
As she makes her way through the hospital she soon stumbles across other survivors. Trapped in the hospital together, the group soon realise that they are all being hunted by strange creatures with a thirst for flesh.
Originally titled ‘One Drop’, Blood Hunters is a monster movie with a difference. A film filled with surprises, it starts to go in one direction before flipping on itself. Not wishing to spoil anything we will at least say that the revelation of what is really happening in the film is brilliant. It’s a new and interesting idea that this writer personally hasn’t crossed paths with before. Frustratingly however, the potential is never fully mined, but that’s more down to time and budget restraints than story development.
Blood Hunters Review
Ellie is a strong female character, a mother desperate to be reunited with her son, this film is a tale of the maternal bond when pushed into extreme circumstances. The surrounding cast is an eclectic collection of familiar from television and genre films, and their characters are just as varied.
The setting, an abandoned hospital, is of course an established horror trope, but Lee works wonders with her setting. She’s managed to make what logically must have been a tiny set, seem massive. There seems to be an ever expanding labyrinth element and our characters appear to be forever unveiling a new area.
Similarly, Lee also makes the most of the budget with her creature effects. They’re definitely strange looking and much like Giger’s alien these beings have several stages which all are intriguing and nightmarish. When used, the gore is brutal, one scene especially stands out and involves potentially the most realistic re-enactment of cauterising a wound seen on-screen before. Seriously, it’s eye-wateringly painful.
A strong idea backed up with strong visual style, Blood Hunters is a genre fan’s dream, or more aptly, nightmare come true.
