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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : Stephen Durham, Masao Kingi
Grace Johnston (One Good Cop)
Jason Padgett
Tracy Kay Wolfe
Supplied By : THINKFilm
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : July 31, 2007
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| PLOT n the sticks of Kentucky, a demented family of inbreds begin the process of cleaning up their blood line. Their twisted family is led by Billy Bob Hackford, who in his madness abducts unsuspecting young women. As a sadistic sport, the clan forces the girls to fight, gladiator style to the death, to determine the strongest. Billy Bob then rapes the victor in hopes of a pregnancy and expanding the Hackford family. The Hackford's plan changes when they abduct Amber Strickland, a southern tom boy whose family ties run as deep as her abductors. She's not a victim or prey, but a huntress raised in the backwoods of Alabama. Her brothers, Bear and Brody track her down and a feud of country folks erupt into a massacre, with only the strongest to survive. |
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| THE REVIEW In BLOODLINES Amber Strickland, is on her way to College, leaving her Brothers, whom raised her after the deaths of the Parents; Brody and Bear behind. Being away from her Brothers was already terrifying enough, but after stopping at a gas station for a fill-up, it would soon get worse than she could've imagined. Deep in the sticks of Kentucky live a clan of inbreeders named the Hackford's, lead by the somewhat head of the family, Billy Bob. For years the family has inbred within their own confines, but the brash Billy Bob has a new plan, which is to make the future generation of his kin that much stronger. The family of inbreeds begin to abduct women, and put them in fights to the death pitted against each other, to seemingly find out just whom is more strong-willed in survival instincts - the winner doesn't get a shiny trophy or gold medal, but instead is raped by Billy Bob and is expected to carry his seed. What the Hackfords are unaware of is that Amber is no ordinary female....she's a Strickland, and the Stricklands have been hunting all their lives.... Amber surely will not go down easy and plans to fight, and in the end she isn't alone. When they fail to hear from their sister for a few days, Brody and Bear grow impatient and set off to find her with their hunting gear in tow. Well, when I first read the plot for BLOODLINES, I didn't know what kind of film this would be. All I knew is that the whole "Backwoods people" thing made me think WRONG TURN and the whole fighting to the death scenario, lead me to have FIGHT CLUB in my mind for some reason or another. Then after processing all of this, I wondered how these two films would be together, so I expected to see similar to what I was thinking. Well since BLOODLINES is essentially a low budget film, as you can imagine, it didn't go as smoothly as what I thought i'd see before I went into this, as there is a level of uneven-ness on many levels of the film. I say this because the acting fluxuates from good to bad, and it seems that two or more actors are never on the same level in the same scene(some more over the top, while others just right), the same can even be said for the films sound effects, sometimes they are believable, yet other times they get annoyingly repetitive. But I have to say that even after all that BLOODLINES is a pretty fun film to watch, as the plot is something unique and different, and the character of Amber played by Grace Johnston has that "heroine factor" in which the audience can root for. Amber is strong and tomboy-ish, and it's all a product of growing up around only hunting equipment and not Barbies all her life, the plot is sometimes slow and sluggish, but the films best qualities lie in the scenes in which Amber takes charge. As for the acting in the film, Grace Johnston as Amber and Jason Padgett as Billy Bob, are the main stars, which is a good thing, as they gave the best performances, while others around them over-acted or were too wooden to convey any plausible realism. But in the end Grace Johnston proves to be the one whom keeps this film alive and watchable, as for some reason the viewer gets the feeling that this character came natural to her. Besides, the rough and tough survivalist, the filmmakers make Amber out to be, they also try to make her a dedicated family member showing undyingly love for her only remaining family, her Brothers. Although they succeeded on one end, I can't say that the family part worked, due to relatively weak performances by the actors who portrayed Brody and Bear, I can't say I really believed the performances. BLOODLINES has many things wrong with it. The South, as with all films of this type is stereotypical, even with bad accents that are far from authentic. The few members of the Hackford family whom are inbred resemble mutated freaks, is it a proven fact, that if you're a product of inbreeding you will look like this? - (How come it seems that ever film has this make-up concept when dealing with the subject?) - anyway, the mutation make-up looked terrible. And even though some of the action scenes are good, some are not(mostly the ones involving bow and arrows), adding to that plethora of uneven happenings the film offers. But in the end, somehow the film managed to keep me watching. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 Stabbings, a slit throat, arrow impalements and exposed internal organs, are what I remembered. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3/10 Country music, drum beats and other upbeat music, it's decent.... |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, BLOODLINES is a decent film with many plot holes and faults, but manages to still be fairly entertaining. If yu do not take it seriously and just sit back and have a good time with it, you might enjoy it, because it is very tongue-in-cheek in execution. |
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