Bloodtype Online

    After a gory blood drenched opening where we are treated to a prisoner breaking out of a cell by casting a spell using the innards of his cellmate the action moves forward a few decades.  Carrere has been arrested for some white-collar crime and thrown into a cell with the jail’s librarian, a mentally handicapped man, and a transvestite body builder.  Together the four of them find the book that the prisoner from the opening was using to cast the spell to escape.  The book promises a way out of the jail for all of them.  But when you use black magic it has a way of backfiring on you, as the men soon find out.  The book gives them what they want; only in it’s own twisted way. 

    This movie was a pleasant surprise for me.  It is a very well paced and intelligent movie with an interesting and engaging story.  For taking place almost entirely within a small jail cell there is quite a bit of action.  In fact the setting helps to create a claustrophobic feel that adds to the movie’s atmosphere.  This helps to create a sort of plausibility to the actions of the prisoners as they become more and more desperate to escape the cell, if only for a short “vacation”.   Additionally the setting builds a sort of empathy between the audience and the characters.  This movie is at it’s core a character piece and without characters that we empathize with the horror “pay off” simply won’t work.  Added to the setting and story is a cast that as a group delivers a great performance.   

    I have no idea what has happened in French cinema, but yet again they have delivered a movie with effective and disturbing gore.  The movie uses a combination of practical effects and CGI to provide any gore hound with an ample amount of the red stuff.  There is a long pause in the gore as the characters are developed, but then the movie amps up again for an excellent finish.  In addition to the blood and guts the effects for the magic spells are well done and creepy as hell.   

    This is a different kind of horror movie.  It engages you with interesting characters and gets you to like them, or at least empathize with them.  Then it proceeds to do terrible things to them in disturbing ways to shock the audience.  I’m not sure if it is because I liked the characters so much or if it is just so different than what I’ve been watching, but this movie blew me away.  I recommend that everyone give this one at least a single viewing, it won’t disappoint you.   

-John “El Juan” Shatzer