Bloodtype Online

    The opening shows a man named Dead Eye Pete meeting his demise at the gallows after living a remorseless life of crime that included rape, robbery and murder. Soon after the credits the film takes place in modern New York City and introduces the main character Rapturious while he waits for his meth dealer. While he is sitting at the bar waiting for his fix he passes the time doing his day trade…writing rhymes. While he is doing this there is a strange character next to him lighting up a cigar. This man shows up throughout the film and from the very beginning the viewer should sense something isn’t right. Soon the camera goes off that man and introduces Louie Savage, Rapturious’s dealer. Louie brings introduces Rapturious to a new drug called After Life and this drug is just the beginning of his melt down. 

    Soon Rapturious is losing focus while everything should be going fine for him. He is moving 50,000 units a week and he has an upcoming movie based off his life lined up but the drugs or something much deeper may be getting in his way. He also had a brutal upbringing after his father died and his mother gave him up for adoption only for him to be abused sexually and physically. Still he had the world in his hands it seemed until his world came crashing down on him. 

    There is no doubt that this should satisfy fans of films with satanic imagery, trippy hallucinations, conspiracy and even hip hop hilarity. The scenes during his rap sessions with his entourage are flat out hysterical. The guys in his crew balanced Rapturious’ more reserved personality. His boys basically just have senseless banter about how the blunt knocked Rapturious out and they get under the producer and engineers skin. I found these scenes to be quite enjoyable but this is not an all out hip hop film like “8 Mile”. The character is a rapper and that’s it. I almost forgot the wannabe ganster stepping to Rapturious and his crew for no apparent reason other than to show every level of haterism. This jokester even started out a rap like “Damn I’ve been stressed since my grandmother passed”. This dude killed me and this scene was written brilliantly and the acting by Rapturious’ crew was wisely plaid straight as they gazed at the battling clown in disbelief. 

    The story is about his illusions and the stark reality he feels when he has them. He senses it is not just the drugs and soon he goes to his producer Allen for some advice. Allen tells him to go to a shrink to get some stuff off his mind and he gives in to the idea. This leads to more confusion for Rapturious and the viewer on to what is happening to his character. Still around this scene with the psychiatrist (Joe Bob Briggs!) they connect the dots with the opening scene with Dead Eye Pete. This scene takes place in hell and is shot with a lot of reds. Also there is tons of male frontal nudity, naked fat women crying and demonic creatures. Hell hasn’t looked so great on screen in some time. The scene where Dead Eye Pete escapes hell through a vaginal portal was inventive and astonishing. I give credit to Kamal Ahmed for making such a visually stunning scene much more than just artsy. It was creative and comprehensive so that was refreshing instead of seeing someone bring their inner David Lynch out. 

    From here there are some killing sprees, near suicides and even some possible satanic police corruption. The film has a fair amount of gore done by Scott Fields and Damien Leone and the storytelling with the cinematography was not only memorable, it also captured the torment of the lead actor while showing some incredible imagery that is missing from a lot of films today. I didn’t see one ounce of CGI in this film. When there were gun shots, there were squibs. When a chick gets stabbed in the neck, it was a practical effect. Nowadays CGI is an excuse to wrap up scenes quicker and Kamel Ahmed didn’t go that route with this film. From the beginning of the film I was drawn into the main character and a lot of that has to do with Rober Oppel’s ability as an actor. He was believable as a rapper and even displays ability in spoken word poetry. He had a real down to earth vibe on screen and expressed all of his emotions honestly. At times he had to throw diva like tantrums and at other times he seemed frightened. He ran with a gamut of emotions and as a viewer I sensed his passion as an actor while being magnified to his character. He could have made a cartoon out of his hip hop character but I felt he gave Rapturious legitimacy. 

    In closing I laughed, I was impressed with the technical aspects like the camera work and the make up. The creature design of the Devil was top notch as well as the before mentioned demons. Debbie Rochon shows up for more than a few scenes and does a wonderful job as Rapturious tenacious manager. She also has an incredible scene showing her goods like it’s still her good old days at Troma. No bullshitting the gore in this scene is disgustingly perverse and a visual treat. There are nightmares, hell, delusions, deaths, random racist rants and much more in what I believe to be the best movie dealing with hell or satan in twenty years. 

    Artie Lange was on board as Executive Producer and after his hilarious and far from PC softball comedy "Beer League",he scores another winner. Kamal Ahmed has made a horror film that delivers in every possible category and should keep fans of horror and film in general anticipating what he has up his sleeve next. TLA/Releasing will be releasing this on October 2. 

Rating - ***1/2  

-Russ Rutter