Blood Highway

Watching 'Blood Highway' I found myself questioning a lot. It looks like a home movie and is obviously made for a fraction of most British films. As DB Morgan's first film there is a lot to like... and it's easy to point out the negatives, so I'll focus on the positive points here ..

This IS a gripping story about a broken family told honestly and with emotional bravery. Tackling dementia, alcoholism and the breakdown of the family unit it certainly has heart.

Clarke and Jakeman are believable as a father/daughter duo and I found myself quite engaged with them and switching allegiances throughout the film as their stories unfolded.

It's gritty, heartfelt and emotionally pays off at the end. Just don't expect the Hollywood gloss as rumour has it this directorial debut cost under £10,000 to make, which in itself is quite an achievement.

Blood Highway or Faith, should be an interesting film, in what might be described as a ridiculous TV plot, we find out that the only person who can drive a pregnant woman to hospital is her drunk, loser dad, so pans out a lengthy journey to the hospital where all the woes of that family is played out leading the the ultimate crash outlined in the trailer. Blood Highway or Faith is an embarrassment to everyone involved unfortunately, possibly at the feet of the film maker.

I can't even allow suspension of disbelief as the sound is shoddy and the visuals are questionable. Aside from that is that the film contains any number of irrations like poor dialogue, bad direction and horrible casting, no idea what the gruff father was saying half the time when i could actually hear anything over the tinny music.

The acting in this movie is so bad that...You know what? I don't even want to discuss it. It's bad. Terrible. Loathsome. Repugnant. The website indicates there are more to come from this crew... Id possibly swerve those given what they've done so far.

Jenny played by Leona Clarke is in labour, her boyfriend is nowhere on the scene so she contacts her alcoholic father played by Frank Jakeman to drive her to hospital, in what is the longest journey on record to rival the Hobbits taking the ring to Mordor and they were on foot.

DB Morgan as writer treats to the most inane awful dialogue, when you can actually hear it, as Director there is poor editing, direction, worse story telling and ham fisted performances that never get better, by the end when the crash happens there are a lot of regrets, mostly by the actors for signing onto this piece of garbage and quite possibly the viewing audience for wasting 70 minutes of their life that they are never getting back.

What was that ghostly character of a woman, was she supposed to be there or randomly showed up and sneaked onto the set with some kind of weird performance art. DB Morgan

Dont be fooled by the apparent awards from little non screening monthly festivals, they are no indication on this shlock, this a definite miss in my opinion.

A fractured family. A devastating car crash. When faced with the ultimate test in which the odds of survival are remote at best, how far can hope lift in the fight for one's life.

This was on my to-watch list for quite a while before I gave it a chance. Holy crap this movie is good. Not ten stars good, obviously, but man it throws some curve balls. The actors were good and believable. The tension builds and builds. The ending was stereotypical but didn't detract from the film at all.

Its a good debut movie from a Director with a good visual sense there are issues over sound in places, but as a low budget feature this has all the elements needed to keep you in your seat.

For those who remember older episodes of Casualty tv show on UK GOLD, which inspired the film, carries an added edge of realism. The setting - ordinary people pregnant Jenny, with boyfriend issues and her alchoholic dad trying to get to hospital during her labour, with audience knowing something bad is coming as they work out their issues, bad things happen then they realise there are bigger things to worry about and everyone gets along in the end.

The Hollywood view of England has been too long focused on the East End gangster movies- Snatch, Long Good Friday, Lock, Stock... where real movies are on ordinary people. This was a good attempt by DB Morgan as a feature debut, so hopefully a learnign experience for his next productions.

Interesting to note that several comments in the reviews of this superlative film concerned the unintelligible accent of Frank Jakeman. I should point out that viewers in the UK (and Holland and most Scandinavian countries) regularly enjoy American films without the aid of subtitles, so how come you find it so hard to understand us? :) We didn't complain that the cast of Donnie Brasco or Goodfellas had New York accents, so why complain that English men have English Accents.