Here for Blood

I think that this movie is supposed to be the kinda movie that's so bad that it's good. But I guess they failed to make it so, cause it's not that funny. I only chuckled a few times. But I didn't laugh at all. Also the blood and gore was really testing my stomach. A fair warning for those who don't have the stomach for excessive gore and blood : don't watch this movie. It's like Quentin Tarantino times 3! Blood spraying in all direction for a minute or two. I think that the title describes the main plot for this movie. Blood, just blood. Maybe vampires can love this movie. But for the rest of us, mortals, we can't. Buh bye!

I thought this film was quite well done for not being a big blockbuster. You know how professional wrestling sets up a physical conflict between bruisers and play acts the whole thing? That's kind of what we end up with here, as the lead character is supposed to be a wrestler, and some of the cult members attacking him are big muscular guys with outfits and masks. Same basic idea, but with knives and other instruments tossed in occasionally. And it's clearly planned this way, because if you think about the plot as is, it really makes no sense for the cultists to be extravagantly dressed athletes. Just go with it. Add in normal people in peril, a girlfriend with that fun Canadian twang where she says her owwws as ewwws (like when she talks "aboot" something), lots of gore, a wise beyond her years kid, some cheesy jokes, a screaming decapitated head and some occult mumbo jumbo, and now you're talking. Something about the every guy fighting off supernatural attackers while cracking lame jokes appeals to me, and it seems a lot more natural when it's a big guy who can take the hits instead of the typical scrawny (and, for some reason I don't understand, usually sexist) kid you're used to seeing in these movies. While this is not the best at any one thing, it has a fair amount of everything. Well, OK, fair warning, I guess not nudity, if that's a dealbreaker for you. But probably everything else you'd want out of a horror comedy is here.

Sitting down to watch the 2022 comedy horror movie "Here for Blood" here in 2024 without ever having heard about it, I have to admit that I wasn't sure what I was in for. But with it being a horror comedy that I hadn't already seen, and my love of the horror genre, of course I had to give the movie a fair chance.

The storyline, written by James Roberts, is a pretty straightforward one. However, I have to say that it wasn't a particularly impressive storyline, and it was rather devoid of comedy, making it a weak horror comedy. I am sure that newcomers to the horror genre might enjoy "Here for Blood", but as a life-long horror fan, I have to say that writer James Roberts just didn't dazzle me with this script.

The movie starts out as a rather generic home-invasion movie, but takes a rather unexpected turn about halfway through, for better or worse.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, which was good, as I do like watching unfamiliar faces and talents on the screen. And the acting performances in "Here for Blood" were adequate. Nothing outstanding or overly memorable, mind you, but definitely adequate for a movie of this caliber.

The effects in the movie were good, and I did like the gore effects and the glowing eyes, those looked really great. And there was actually enough gore and visceral mayhem to keep an old gorehound like myself content, and that was definitely something that spoke well in favor of the movie and helped keeping it afloat.

While "Here for Blood" was watchable, it wasn't exactly a movie that tickled me the right places.

My rating of "Here for Blood" lands on a five out of ten stars.

This movie is called 'Here For Blood' for a reason! If you aren't here for blood, then don't go see this movie because there is plenty of it! If you love blood, gore, makeup effects and a campy 80s horror feel, you will enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised with the great acting and cinematography for such a low budget movie filmed in little London. It has nods to a lot of great horror classics and some laugh out loud moments. I recommend this movie to any true horror fan...Those who don't like it probably aren't actual horror fans and just don't get it. Grab some popcorn and a few friends and just enjoy!

I personally don't care for Horror movies that mix their tone as much as this one does. Like I mention in my title, 'Re-animator' is way Over The Top too, but maintains more of a campy/satire tone throughout. This one right from the opening scene starts off with prolonged, extreme violence. Just not really my thing, especially if you are going to mix goofy humour with it later. The tones are just to extreme for my personal 'Taste' (such as it is)

However, in all fairness if you like these kinds of films that mix extreme violence with Over The Top gory humour, you may indeed like this one just fine. But, just for me, I don't really care for this more 'Modern' take on this kind of 'Horror', although I did kind of like the Supernatural elements as basic as they were.

For example, it is similar as to why I didn't enjoy the recent film 'Violent Night' Again, they were trying to mix humour with extreme violence, and in this case with a young girl involved. To me, I feel you should either go for a lighter touch and play up the humour, or take the whole thing completely seriously and just make a straight forward Slasher film. Just my take on it.

But, like I say, IF you are the kind who likes this more 'Modern' approach to Horror, and you don't mind the mix of really goofy humour and extreme, brutal violence, then you may very well enjoy this movie more than I did.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My Particular Way of Rating:

5 - Flawed, but with some entertainment value.

6. A decently passable story maybe worth a watch.

7. A solid film, well made, effective, and entertaining.

And, obviously, you can probably figure out what above and below these would mean... : )