Cup of My Blood

There's uneven and then there's this movie. The premise that the last person you'd think should look after the Holy Grail is the one chosen to do it...well, I've see it before.

In the first half hour, the only person I wanted to see (Tina) was dead already. The hero was like a post car-wreck Bill Pullman. The porno king kept reminding us he was acting. Limpy has a good look but not compelling enough to wait hour and eighteen minute for. And the writing was atrocious with needless amounts of exposition AFTER you know what going on. Or some heavy hand line like "I got degrees in Philosophy, Religion and Art." Hm. And this picture as RELIGIOUS themes? You must be very important to the plot. I'm sure some trailer park trash found stuff like this "real inneresting" but it made me laugh. And not in a good/bad way.

Still, the final nail in the cross...er...coffin were the innumerable audio stings faking you out. It's a valid technique but it gets dull watching and actor on the screen constantly flinching. I can almost picture the audition - "Now, there's a lot of flinching in this movie. Let's see you flinch."

Go watch God Told Me To, instead. At least that's an ambitious mess.

Wow, this was a waste of my life. I wish I could take the 1 hours and 48 minutes of my life back. The story was brutal, and very unbelievable. This movies is just garbage. I warn you, if you watch this, you too will wish for the almost 2 hours of time that this movie wasted back. The acting in this movie is also very brutal. Sometimes it sounds like they are reading their lines from cue cards. I am in shock, and awe, that movies like this are actually made. Sure it had a small budget, but so did Napoleon Dynamite, and look how successful that movie was :). I give this a 2 out of 10, because it wasn't the absolute worst movie I have ever seen, but it is sure close. Anyways, you have been warned...

I saw this on a dvd which I own. The title on my dvd is The Da Vinci Virus. I am willing to trade my dvd with any 80s horror film. Even the bad 80s horror film is better than this lousy film.

Aft the death of his wife, an artist loses his inspiration and his faith but he takes adult pictures for a mobster against his wishes. A wounded man from a car accident gives the artist a box asking him to protect and never open it. Wow man, jus wow. It has very annoying photography, the plot is awful, the film looked more like a bad softcore n ther is nothing scary or horror about it.

The entire story was so confusing and illogical that at one time in the film I just decided to stop trying to understand it. Enough said, there is a Holy Grail, a special breed of people that can see the Grail and not die called Protectors, some weirdos that want to help the Protectors (let's call them the Geeks) and some other weirdos that want the Grail for some unholy business. They all kind of shoot each other, full of Faith and all.

The beginning is pretty well done, with tensionate soundtrack and graphical to gory moments. But it just continues like that. There is no sense of anything after a while. After really dumb dialogues and scenes, where even the girls that come to pose for porn sites look bad, the whole thing degenerates into a mindless bloodbath. Lots of fake blood and then, the end. A final scene that shows what is going on after 77 years. Why 77? What was the purpose of the movie? No answer, really.

Conclusion: almost bad and totally boring.

When Jack Fender (Daniel Patrick Sullivan) - former photographer turned pornographer - witnesses a car accident, the dying passenger charges him with a task: take care of the box she's carrying. Don't look at what's within and keep it safe. Jack takes the box and is soon haunted by strange dreams, weird visions and a feeling of acute paranoia. And rightly so, as the box contains the Holy Grail and there are forces who will go to great lengths to get their hands upon it...

Imagine if David Lynch was Japanese and he'd directed The Ninth Gate.

That's probably the best way to describe "Cup of My Blood," a creepy, atmospheric supernatural thriller that delivers some very well-timed shocks, has a great sense of dread, features some nice "in-camera" SFX (ala Jacob's Ladder) and some very well executed (no pun intended) gore scenes, which, although not hugely visceral, are enough to keep schlock fans happy without offending the more sensitive horror fan.

One other point to raise is the superb use of sound in this movie. Atmospheric rumbles, almost bordering on the subsonic haunt the movie's soundtrack, creating a very disturbing, eerie atmosphere of dread.

Sadly, performances are a mixed bag, with some stilted acting and - to be brutally honest - dialogue that's at best, okay and at worst, bad. Despite its faults, though, it manages to retain a great sense of dread and an interesting - if at times confusingly overplayed - plot.

Whilst the movie's basic plot is straightforward enough (providing you stick with it - just roll with the "flashbacks/intercuts," as they're explained later), but some extra backstory on a couple of characters and a clearer explanation on exactly WHY the Grail is so important (being Christ's cup aside) would have helped.

As it is, "Cup of My Blood" falls short of being a great movie. With a stronger cast, a little tightening around the edges and a little more exposition it could have been superb. As it stands, it's a solid, entertaining enough movie that I doubt will make anybody's Top Ten, but kudos to Lance Catania and crew for producing a chilling, different and interesting movie. I look forward to seeing his future work.