By Geno McGahee
I love indie horror for the raw nature and honesty, but when you have the filmmaker totally responsible for the film without a filter, you get some things that aren’t very good. As a filmmaker of the sort, I look back at some of my work and think that another set of eyes would have been helpful before production. This is what I feel with some of the major elements of THE BLOOD LET, a vampire horror film/comedy by J.R. McGarrity.
Gus (Rollin Blanton) is the manager of an apartment complex after leaving the force due to an incident that involved a fatality. The tenants in the apartment are pretty troubled and Gus doesn’t exactly fit the role. He is stumbling his way through and is dealing with Wang (Clint Jung), the owner and a complete jerk. I have to say that the character Wang is, by far, the biggest problem with this movie. There are some crazy characters here and there but they can pass and their roles aren’t big enough to irritate the viewer. Wang is incredibly irritating and unfunny. I get the feeling that the character may have been something that amused the makers…a little too much and they overkilled the movie with it. Had this character’s scenes been totally eliminated, this would have been a much better watch.
Two shady characters are seeking a vacant apartment but they keep showing up at 3:30 AM, and Gus keeps sending them away. After pressure from the owner, he finally lets Star (Elise Jackson) and Connor (David Landry) in and rents them an apartment. They turn out to be vampires and begin to kill the other tenants. The cop in Gus comes out and he attempts to take on the undead, clear his own name, and save others.
Certain things in this film are very impressive for a micro-budget indie. The acting is far above the normal level. The entire cast, minus a couple, was very good. Blanton nailed the role and was easy to root for. Jackson and Landry were also very good as the vampires. I found them pretty amusing and believable, despite the unbelievable role they were assigned. I should also mention the transvestite/demon expert, Bob (Ken MacFarlane). He was a great character and I enjoyed his role and delivery. As I said, the acting in this was above average and it helped push this movie along.
One of the crazy characters I liked, and it’s not just because he kind of looked like me, was the flamboyantly gay garbage man (Ward Edmondson). He’s only in it for a few seconds, but I had to watch it several times because it amused me that much.
The film has some audio issues (found myself raising and lowering the volume from time to time) and the editing, at times, needed some work, but there is a good film in here. As I watched THE BLOOD LET, I found myself getting into and then quickly pulled out of it as Wang or another one of these unfunny characters came up. The comic relief in this film, for the most part, proved to be a distraction. I cringed at the martial arts duel between a vampire and an elderly woman at the end.
THE BLOOD LET is a mixed bag. It was shot well, the acting was great, and the story was good. Had all of the absurd nonsense been removed and replaced with more scenes that pushed the story forward, I would be screaming its praises. J.R. McGarrity did a lot of things right with this production and I tip my hat, but the things that weren’t done so well stick out like a sore Wang.
Rating: 5/10
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