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Overall Rating : 2.5/10
Directed By : Olaf Ittenbach
Christopher Kriesa (Legion of the Dead)
Jürgen Prochnow (The Da Vinci Code)
Dan van Husen (Forest of the Damned)
Mehmet Yilmaz (Æon Flux)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Oct. 27, 2006
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| PLOT Dr. Douglas Madsen is on his way home from work one day when his car collides with a prison bus, setting off a horrific chain of events. The four surviving prisoners, one of whom is severely injured, take the doctor hostage and flee into Canada. There, the group finds refuge in a mysterious, isolated house inhabited by a very strange family... |
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| THE REVIEW The plot of HOUSE OF BLOOD is basic and so is the movie itself - so basic in fact that the plot repeats itself on three separate occasions within the film. The film starts when a bus full of convicts from a local prison collides with the vehicle of a Doctor named Doug, in an horrific crash. During the crash everyone is seemingly killed, besides 4 remaining prisoners,(whom kill the guards and escape) one of which, has been injured. The escapees, in hopes of aiding the injured prisoner take Doug hostage - but later on in a scuffle between the inmates, the Psychian's medicine bag is thrown in the river. With no means of medication the prisoners as well as bringing their hostage Doug along, hike into the woods and as fate would have it, they stumble across an old isolated cabin - it is there that they seek to take refuge. When they enter the old house they find that the occupants are strange, as they often quote religious references and also prefer a little blood with their dinner. When Doug as a last resort amputates the arm of the fallen convict, it somehow triggers something in the crazed family and they transform into bloodthirsty monsters. The prisoners are in a fight for their lives and it is a fight that they ultimately lose - Doug the only one to escape the madness. In a strange turn of events the film goes on to repeat itself, only this time the Doctor, who has since been taken into custody for his aide of the criminals, is on bus full of inmates who crash again - some escape they take doug hostage - and yes they end up at the same house yet again. Nearly identical events soon occur to them and the doctor escapes, but is not so lucky this time as he is hit by an oncoming prison bus causing yet another crash similar to the others... I don't know about bus wrecks, but HOUSE OF BLOOD is an absolute train wreck, that's for sure! The Director, Olaf Ittenbach is a special effects wizard that from what I hear is renowned in Germany for his talent as a gore artist. With that being said, I did expect a gory film that I hope would be entertaining in HOUSE OF BLOOD.... but in the end it wasn't nearly as gory or entertaining as I had hoped. The gore is actually medial and besides relying on what he is known for, Ittenbach, tries to rely on dialogue and character. relying on dialogue and character is perfectly fine, many films do so but when you have a film in which neither of those 2 elements are that exciting....well it just doesn't work. I mean most of the dialogue here was downright ridiculous - with one of the characters continuously repeating various phrases with the word "Fuck" in them, so much so that it just becomes laughable, to the woman of the cannibal clan who speaks a gibberish language yet everyone seems to understand her perfectly(I didn't understand a damn word she said). The characters are so bland, there is nothing distinct about them - they are almost all virtually the same. I can't tell you that HOUSE OF BLOOD flows well pace-wise because truthfully it doesn't have one. Just when you think the story is ready to go on to the next step, we suddenly see another wreck happen and then find Doug in the same house with a new cast of inmates - it's almost like rewinding the film and watching from the beginning again, when it came around to where I found myself watching this for a second time....I was utterly bored and nearly asleep. In all honesty I found nothing really worthwhile in this film - well certainly not a thing worth wasting 105 minutes of you life for.. a runtime that I feel is entirely too long for this film. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 This film comes from someone whom specializes in special effects, yet I didn't find this all that gore really, we do have things like heads exploding and decapitations... but to me they didn't look realistic. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score to me is actually better than the film, but not by much rockish tracks - but something I forgot to mention is that the sound effects in this film are absolutely horrible.... so it would've helped had the score been louder to drown them out.... |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Well, Olaf Ittenbach, may be relatively good at gore effects, but as a Director is an incoherent was - harsh but true. The character's are repetitive and poorly directed - likewise is the story. I would'nt recommend HOUSE OF BLOOD as it is like experiencing the worst case of de-ja-vu that you could even have - it's sad when the only thing that is cool about the film is it's cover art, which is something the filmmakers had no hand in creating in the first place.... |
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