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I don't consider myself a patient person, and slow movies lose my interest, however, while Lake Mungo was slow, something about it made it hard to look away. Maybe it was being able to relate to the Australian setting (as an Aussie myself), maybe it was my desperation in need of a horror-fix, I can't really pin-point it. It could be the investigative theme of the film, as it doesn't go overboard in it's presented techniques (no super high tech gadgets, government spies, etc), and thus makes it seem real- something achievable by the average person. It begins to feel personal.

The final hour-half hour of the film is where everything begins to piece itself together really well. Throughout the film you're constantly asking new questions (eg. "where did that person go"), and the end really makes the build up feel justified. It's a chilling feeling, still, and you might be a little on edge for the remainder of the day after watching Lake Mungo- but if you're a horror fan, this should be your cup of tea. It's not a fast paced, mega-action slasher, but it does give you the subtle feeling of uncertainty and vulnerability, which is admirable.

When I started watching this film, I'll admit, I expected the Hollywood over-sexualized b-movie about girls in underwear and steamy showers... It was, as they say, "a breath of fresh air" to be able to watch a female-led film without having to cringe and sigh at over-sexualized interactions, and pointless nudity. This is a film with a focus on it's story! I'll be damned! Then, I turned to the internet to find out what the ending was supposed to mean (and you might too), and as it turns out, my (as mentioned) relief WAS the point- in a sense.

I have watched a questionable amount of films in my lifetime (more so than my peers), however, I don't consider myself to be a film enthusiast. I do feel this film might need to be watched at least a couple times before you're able to make sense of some scenes, and thus believe this film will be more appreciated by film enthusiasts, but nonetheless would recommend watching. The themes of the film are refreshing, and I feel lucky to have lived in a time when a filmmaker could tell a story for what it is, and without the distractions (glamour, nudity, gore) needed to keep an audience's attention.

As a fan of Underworld from it's first release, I'm disappointed in Blood Wars for being the only film of the franchise that I didn't enjoy. While it was visually beautiful, with promising characters and story lines, my biggest peeve is that the entirety of the film felt either rushed, or unfinished (potentially both). I was really excited whenever a new character was introduced, however, none were explored enough to justify their place in the film. This is frustrating because it seems obvious that the characters were thought-out well, given unique identities and backstories, however, the film failed to produce these. Our main antagonist, for example, is difficult to empathize in, and becomes more of a mere pest than the fearful, intriguing villain we've seen in former films. Same issue with most of the story lines, which felt too-condensed (was it a budget issue?) that you almost question their relevancy in the film, and if the film would have been better without them.

Blood Wars overall had so much potential to be one of the best films of the franchise, however, it was crammed with too many overlapping story lines into this 90 minutes of poorly executed 'movie', hardly explored in-depth enough to do them any justice. This easily could have been resolved if the movie had have been longer, or spread across two films. Hopefully the final installment will tie in what we didn't see in Blood Wars, and give fans (old and new) some closure, because Blood Wars will leave you asking "that's it?"