Bloodtype Online

    A group of at risk teens is sent to a state park to pick up trash as part of their rehabilitation.  While on the way to pick them up the corrections officer that is going to supervise them is attacked and killed by an escaped convict, who takes his place.  After some character development where we discover that the kids are all pretty nasty the part rangers are introduced.  The teens are going to go up the mountain with ranger Bob, while the officer/convict is going to take the supplies up to the campsite with an all terrain vehicle.  While ranger Bob hikes the teens up the mountain the convict kills the only other park ranger on the mountain and destroys the radio, isolating them for his fun.  But unbeknownst to him, or anyone else is that there is a killer bear stalking the park!  Everyone is at risk as the bear turns the table on the convict and starts to kill them all off one by one.  But is there something else going on?  Will anyone make it out of the park alive? 

    So I was prepared to hate this movie as yet another poorly done creature feature.  The first half hour did nothing to change my mind.  The acting is terrible, the attempts to develop characters are poorly done, and the music just doesn’t fit.  But then the bear shows up and the movie hits it’s stride.  All of a sudden it goes from a badly made horror flick to a funny comedy.  The terrible characters and music starts to fit and works well with the rest of the film.  Don’t get me wrong the cast, especially the younger actors playing the at risk “teens”, is still pretty rough.  But somehow the bad acting just works with the story when it tries to be silly and fun.   

    What really surprised me when watching this movie is the complete lack of CGI.  All of the kills are done with practical effects on set!  When is the last time that any of us have seen a low budget horror movie even try and pull this off?  Honestly some of the effects look silly, but again with the fact that the movie is being played for laughs it didn’t bother me.  Plus I’m more than willing to cut the filmmakers some slack when they make the effort to avoid CGI and do the thing right.  I was also surprised at how nicely done the scenes with the bear were done.  First of all the animal in the movie is clearly a brown bear and not a Grizzly.  But unlike some of the recent bear attacks movies I’ve seen this animal actually interacts with the cast on screen, which brings a bit more credibility to the movie.   

    This isn’t a great movie and if you don’t like comedy mixed in with your horror then you aren’t going to enjoy this one.  But it is so far superior to anything of the low budget animal attacks movies that I’ve seen in the last few years.  This movie put a smile on my face with some of the humor and the practical effects.  I liked it and want to support filmmakers that put this much effort into their product.