By Geno McGahee
The year is 2000 and it was a magical time for the micro-budget horror films. With the advancement of the internet, affordability of camcorders and editing programs, many with a story could tell it through video. Mainstream movie goers would never understand this level of entertainment. It is a niche market but horror fans with the lowest of expectations for acting and production value could find something they liked if they looked hard enough. Some say you can’t make a movie on 500 bucks, but the micro-budget filmmaker laughs and says: “What am I going to do with the other 400?”
Christopher Ambriz had a camcorder and friends ready to create a vampire horror movie in 2000 called “DARK BLOOD.” Watching it immediately made me think of MIDNIGHT SKATER and DEMON SUMMER by the Campbell Brothers. It has that great look and that great bad acting. It was what a micro-budget was in 2000 and if you love that style of film, then this one is for you. It’s got a lot of heart.
Lupus (Jae Flores) is a vampire that has moved into town and has gained some attention. His sunglasses at all time and standoffish approach has got three teens curious. They try to get close to him, but he is not happy with that and goes off on them. Brain (Michael Cantu) and John (Christopher Ambriz) along with their buddy, Billy (Ryan Hunts), are now in the path of this killer force and must figure a way to stop it.
A violent showdown takes place and soon one of the three is turned into a creature of the night, much like FRIGHT NIGHT. In fact, I saw a lot of FRIGHT NIGHT influence in this. Lupus proves strong and unbeatable, but Brain and John set out to take him down.
They head to his secret lair or whatever and I have to say that for a micro-budget horror movie in 2000, the makeup isn’t that bad for the vampires. They look pretty neat. I wish they spent as much time focusing on the wardrobe of the cast. I found it quite distracting that the main characters dressed so sloppy, but this is micro-budget and you usually wear what you got.
DARK BLOOD is not going to go down in history as a great vampire movie, but it is compelling. Jae Flores did a decent job as the vampire and carried himself pretty well. The rest of the cast seemed to have a little too much fun in the roles and the dialogue, at times, was pretty painful. I think that we were still in the CLERKS era, more or less, and that ruined a lot of future dialogue and micro-budget was notorious for trying to emulate.
Overall, I enjoyed the film, but you have to have an appreciation for the micro-budget film. It’s got its issues, but if you make a film on this low of a budget, you will run into them. To the credit of Ambriz, he made the most of it. He was able to secure some locations and did some cool CGI for the time and for this level.
I recommend DARK BLOOD to the lovers of gritty horror filmed on a 200 dollar camcorder. It has its charm.
Rating: 4/10
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