Blood Vessel

The offerings of the considerably small niche of horror movies set during a war or another are always welcome in my world, despite most of them being lacklusters - "Blood Vessel", for the most part, is exactly that. Coming from Justin Dix, a special effects aficionado turned writer and director, "Blood Vessel" offers entertainment in the form of 80's best aesthetical traditions, and very little besides that. For extra bonus points, one must take this shlock horror not seriously.

It is 1945 and the middle of the ocean. A real ragtag team - including a tough but righteous Russian sniper, a moronic Englishman, an American cook, an Australian soldier, a useless captain, an all-motherly Alyssa Sutherland, and more - are hopelessly drifting on a raft to a certain death, but a chance at survival presents itself in a form of an eerie, silently drifting German minesweeper. As we tag along our indubitably stereotypical team of heroes on the mysterious Nazi ship, the excursion takes us through ~40 minutes of slow building of a shallow story that has frequent issues, before it kicks the gear into ~40 minutes of a tad bit more entertaining horror feast - none of which is scary. Frankly, "Blood Vessel" is almost entirely void of tension, and the turns of the plot are more likely to elicit a dry response rather than a surprising one.

One thing that "Blood Vessel" has going for it, is the fact that its maker knows and loves practical special effects. Though a low budget feature and playing out as such, among a little confusing action scenes there are mildly satisfying 80's kind of gore and make-up galore. Set designs are also quite fine, but cinematography's uneven and the original score - a highly typical one, not counting the chanting Nazi occult jingles. However, perhaps the most awesome part of "Blood Vessel" is comedy value. Some of it is intentional, some is not, but either way Teplov (Alex Cooke), Sinclair (Nathan Philipps), and even the villain will make up for some amusement, especially if You're not watching it alone.

The lovers of modern shlocks reminiscent of the 80's, and fans of horror movies set in wartimes, such as myself, can try and find some fun in "Blood Vessel", preferably with a friend and a beer. My rating: 4/10.

I had really high hopes for this film after reading many comments. This film both worked and failed for me. It worked as a thriller more than a horror film, the acting was good on most parts, not all. The story was good to. The bad, why Tue bickering between characters, this to me fell right from the start and got on my nerves. There was no surprise at the end, so this was a bit of a let down foe me. The main problem I had was the film was slow in some parts and I found myself getting bored waiting for something to happen. Nearly an above average film but not this time.

I had not even heard about this 2019 movie titled "Blood Vessel" prior to sitting down here late in 2020 to watch it. I happened to stumble upon the movie by random chance, and I was intrigued by the movie's cover. So of course I gave the movie a chance.

And I will say that "Blood Vessel" actually turned out to be a nice surprise of a movie. Sure, it was predictable, but that didn't really play much of a factor, because the overall storyline was good and provided wholesome entertainment.

The storyline is one that draws you in right from the very beginning as writers Justin Dix and Jordan Prosser actually managed to churn out something that had that old school classic horror feel to it, and at the same time managing to be something up to date.

Not only was the storyline interesting and entertaining, but the movie also had an interesting character gallery to play out the movie's storyline on the screen. And it definitely helped that they had great talents to portray these characters.

I was impressed with the special effects, especially the Strigoi creature effects, because they definitely looked nice. There was a very bestial aura to the way these shapeshifting creatures were brought to life on the screen.

While the events portrayed in the movie took place aboard a boat only, and the movie had a relatively small cast, then it was actually pulled off quite nicely. The setting worked quite well in favor of the movie, and you definitely feel right there alongside with the characters aboard the boat.

As it turned out, then I was actually more than surprised with "Blood Vessel"; I was genuinely entertained. This was a much welcomed addition to the horror genre. So thumbs up to director Justin Dix for his accomplishments here.

My rating of "Blood Vessel" is a six out of ten stars.

My expectations were kind of low, so I was surprised in a good way for a change. The acting was ok and also were the effects, it has a nice atmosphere wich overall made this movie a nice experience as for myself . I enjoyed this hour and a half, way more than I thought I would, so for me is a solid 6, for these quarantine days.

Blood Vessel isn't particularly unique or innovative, but it's a solid vampire low-budget horror film. Let's start with the bad. The movie spends almost a full hour and 15 minutes before the vampires start munching on people making the story drag until the action begins. Once the action did start, it was generally quick cuts and shaky cam rather than well-choreographed fights. Now for the good. The set, costumes, creature design, makeup, and practical effects were all excellent for a low-budget film. The eyes of the vampires looked so cool! I really liked the motley crew of characters and their struggle to survive. In the end, Blood Vessel wasn't an outstanding film, but I enjoyed watching it anyway!