Genres

Visitors Review

Claudio Carvalho 2012-05-25 01:21:04

Disappointing Gore Horror Tale

In the early 30, Hitler and Third Reich dedicated to explore theoccultism and in 1936 they sent emissaries to North America. In MorganCounty, West Virginia the immigrant German family Wollner accepts tolodge the historian Richard Wirth (Michael Fassbender) in their farmfor one month, receiving a large amount in return. Richard demonstratesa great interest in a Nordic runic stone the Wollners have in the barn.In the present day, the paramedic Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) misseshis older brother Victor Alan Marshall (Dominic Purcell) that hasvanished two years ago in the fields nearby Town Creek. Out of theblue, Victor appears in his house during the night, haired, dirty andtattered, and tells that he had been imprisoned for two years in theWollner's farm. They take their weapons and return to the farm, wherethey discover that the Wollners have sealed off evil in their realestate and are paying a high price for this action."Town Creek" is a disappointing gore horror tale, considering that thedirector is Joel Schumacher. The supernatural story is violent andgruesome, but never scary; very confused and lacking explanation whythe vampire necromancer has a third eye, or why he can not drink hisown blood. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Renascido das Trevas" ("Reborn from the Darkness")

2012-05-24 14:40:58

Not horrible like I expected

Joel Schumacher helming a direct to DVD horror film? I was originally intrigued just based on the fact that it seemed like Blood Creek (originally called Town Creek) would be an entertaining train wreck, but instead, the film is a decent enough horror dirge that features some solid acting. Henry Cavill (The Tudors) stars as a paramedic whose long missing soldier brother (Dominic Purcell of Prison Break) returns and seeks his help in exacting revenge on the family he claims have held him captive. The brothers soon discover however that there is more going on with this family then what it seems however, dating back to the days of World War II when a Nazi scholar (Michael Fassbender of Inglourious Basterds) unleashed something dangerous, blood thirsty, and immortal. With disagreements between Schumacher and the film's screenwriter, it's no wonder Blood Creek sat on Lions Gate's shelf for as long as it did. The script is all over the place and often confusing, while a good amount of the film's CGI effects are pretty bad as well. Still, the film is capably directed for the most part, and Purcell and Cavill are surprisingly great in the leads. All in all, Blood Creek isn't quite the train wreck I was expecting, and is worth your time if you have some time to kill.

2012-05-17 04:29:58

A movie I only wish had a sequel in the works!

Its original UK release had the film known as Town Creek but the name was changed to Blood Creek when it was released in the United States. The film was directed by Joel Schumacher who has quite a few amazing films under his belt (including a personal favorite of mine 8MM) though also quite a few that fell short. While not all of his work falls into horror he does have a few key films set in both horror and suspense and knows how to put a film together. The writing credit falls to David Kajganich who is a little newer having only one screenplay written before it. The quality of his work shows through quite well through this one and he has 3 more movies being written. My only worry is that two of them are remakes of classics and I hope he writes the screenplays for It and Pet Cemetery in a way to do them justice as pissing off the Stephen King fans, with remakes of 2 classic films, will surely hurt his chances for much after that.Now going into this film I had heard mixed reviews. After seeing the film I ultimately believe it was a bias against Schumacher for a few of his films that were utterly painful to watch. If you can put those thoughts aside while watching the film as I did I believe you'll have a great time. We open with a German family on a farm in the middle of nowhere in the World War 2 era who receive a letter that a scholar is coming to stay on their farm. While the mother is against the idea initially the check they are offered to keep the scholar up swayed any decision against finding out more away and they agreed to do it. His first night there he points out that Germany will soon rule the world and we find out he is on a mission for the Nazi regime to recover ancient artifacts that can provide immortality. Apparently there were multiple artifacts left in the United States when ancient Vikings first found the continent and the Nazi's want them. The scholar that comes to town, Professor Wirth (Michael Fassbender), finds the first relic and ends the introduction apparently cutting the daughter and fading out of scene.We cut to modern day as the modern day as a man, Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill), is being lectured by his father that his older brother, Victor (Dominic Purcell), has been missing for over two years and blames him for it happening. That night out of the blue the older brother reappears and insists there is no time and they need to go out immediately to have revenge on the family that has kept him captive and tortured him for the past 2 years. While his brother is at first hesitant just happy his brother is back when he sees the scars on his back he agrees to go with him. We see them sneak up on the house where the family is at (which is the same house shown in the introduction) and once we have the family rounded up appear to be seeing the same family from nearly 60 years before -un ravaged by the passage of time. Soon after the Nazi shown in the introduction reappears, infused with power making him stronger than a normal man and quite angry for the situation he is described to be in.This movie was a true shock on how well it was portrayed. When you combine a lower budget film (even with amazing production value) with a Nazi mastermind who is nearly immortal and went straight to DVD you expect nothing great. When you keep in mind that a large slew of his films haven't been great you will further be worried. Don't be. If it at all sounds like something you may enjoy watching I recommend picking it up immediately as I was truly surprised at how enjoyable and worth watching this film was.

2012-05-16 15:03:52

Not worth Red Box $1.08

If someone lets you borrow it for free, maybe. Nah, go do something outdoors instead. There are better documentaries on history channel about the Nazi's fascination with the occult. This just didnt do anything for me.

pipecock 2012-05-16 08:22:26

Went in with low expectations, got my $1s worth and then some

I hadn't heard anything about this movie prior to today, but checkingIMDb to see what the local cheap theater had to offer came up withthis. Having no desire to see anything else that was playing, my wifeand I decided to drop a couple bucks on it and we were notdisappointed.In general, I am not a fan of WW2, Holocaust, or Nazi related filmssimply due to the obvious nature of nearly every plot line related tothem. Even Inglorious Basterds irritated me because of this.Thankfully, Blood Creek takes itself not very seriously and throws inlots of other random plot devices (Viking runes, zombies, the occult,the war in Iraq, etc.) that make little to no sense but serve the filmwell.If you like crappy modern B style horror films (I saw another commentermention Drag Me To Hell, which I also enjoyed more than just about anyother "big" release I've seen this year), then you can't really gowrong here. Iffy acting, senseless plot, and bad CGI are not enough todefeat the high entertainment value of this fast-paced flick. If I hadexpectations for this, or had I paid $10 to see it, I would probably bepretty irritated. But if you can catch it at your cheapo second runtheater, I can think of far worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

2012-05-15 22:56:38

Better than expected

Blood Creek was much better than I was led to believe,That's why I usually don't take movie advise from people unless they have my love for certain aspects of the genre.It was fast paced and somewhat original,the gore and effects were good enough to satisfy this hard core slasher lover.It didn't hurt that the two leading men are hot..Dominic Purcell and Henry Cavill both gorgeous and good actors as well.Actually all the acting in the movie was up to par.If you like slasher and zombie flicks this is right up your alley.These are quite different zombies than I have seen before,they're not afflicted with a virus or anything like that and it's quite entertaining the way they come about.This movie deals with the occult,undead Nazis,feeding on human blood for survival and immortality .I think it's a good entry in this years Horror pool.I will watch it again.

2012-05-12 16:08:37

Good Idea Gone Bad

Though Joel Schumacher has had some high points in his career, much of his work has been very middle-of-the-road. He's not generally much of a stylist. He just works the script. Here he ramps things up a bit on the visual side but the script isn't supporting him.Here's the scoop. It's 1936. Hitler is on the move. He's got some of his agents combing the world for particular relics with magical powers to help the Nazi cause. Some of his agents hit the States looking for Rune Stones left by the Vikings. One agent comes across one on a farm in Virginia. Jump ahead to now and various people go missing periodically around this farm. One young guy, who thought he lost his brother on a fishing trip two years prior, finds his brother has returned and wants to recruit him to do vengeance on everyone at said farm. Of course it turns out things are more complicated than that.The whole Nazi/ occult thing has become more prominent over the years. Some people have realized that this was not just some pipe dream imagined by the lunatic fringe. Hollywood has worked it with varying degrees of success. Here it's not played too well. It's just not a very good script. You find out, pretty early on, that this particular Nazi agent has learned a few magical tricks. But it escalates to such an over the top degree that it almost becomes cartoonish. And there is some pretty stupid stuff at hand. For instance: How could this farm stand for some 50 plus years, with runic symbols painted, in a garish red, over all the doors and windows with no one ever trying to investigate? And has no official ever gone to the farm to even inquire about the people that have been disappearing at regular intervals? And the daughter. She seems to know enough where they could have done this Nazi pig in long ago. Little of all this makes sense.The acting is decent enough. I'm not a great fan of Dominic Purcell. It's not that I don't consider him a good actor. I just don't think he has a very good camera face, but he does do a good job here. And why did Shea Whigham take this gig? His role is nearly nonexistent. The production vales are good. Everything is pro level. It just suffers under bad writing.It doesn't hurt to watch this movie, but I could have used my time better.

2012-05-12 09:55:49

Better than most theatre scary movies

This was a great, fast-paced scary movie with an interesting plot. It's a lot better than a lot of theater releases that I've seen in the past couple of months. Dominic Purcell plays his role well and so does Henry Cavill as the brother who watches over his nephews. It had really great special effects and was just overall very well done. Definitely give it a shot, but I have a feeling this will be one of those very underrated awesome movies.

bcbell79 2012-05-08 16:34:38

Much more fun than I expected, a bloody fun 90 Zombie action horror flick thats worth a watch!

I assume if you are reading this review you enjoy horror movies to somedegree. Blood Creek is by no means a movie you need to own, but itstotally worth watching (its currently on Netfilx's Instant Stream in HDand 5.1!). Ignore the fact that this film is a Joel Schumacher film,its no where near as good as The Lost Boys but its MUCH better thanBatman & Robin. And for an almost unknown horror action film, its quitefun! The films opening actually starts in the 1930's, in black and white,and is not needed. This scene was probably added by the studio onceMichael Fassbender became popular due to Inglorious Bastards, as itsthe only time you ever see his face without undead makeup. The moviepicks up pretty quick from there (now modern day), and soon its twobrothers off to battle a family with a dark secret. Soon there is apowerful Nazi (Fassbender, who is part zombie, part necromancer, partvampire) who spawns zombies and undead animals and who will stop atnothing to feed upon the humans remaining at this secluded farmhouseand free himself to terrorize the world. The movie has a lower budgetfeel to it, with a small cast and the majority of the film taking placeat this farm. However, with its action movie pacing, lots of blood andfun gore, and original elements, despite its flaws it a fun 90 minuteride. If after reading this review you are still interested, check this movieout, its a good time. If this doesn't sound like fun, well, go watchsomething else! Like, My Name is Bruce, perhaps...

gradyharp 2012-05-08 06:46:17

At least is has Henry Cavill....

BLOOD CREEK (aka TOWN CREEK) is pretty much a mess of a movie - in moreways than expected. But at least this very minor effort by JoelSchumacher continues his tradition of introducing fine lads to thescreen in hopes of launching a career (Colin Farrell in TIGERLAND is atypical example). The story/screenplay by David Kajganich tries veryhard to be substantial (Viking runes were left in about eight farms andthe Nazi's preoccupation with the occult made them spend years tackingthem down - the runes being a means toward immortality if you drink theright blood yada yada yada...), but in the end this is just another ofthe genre as SAW 1 - 6(?), Seven, Silence of the Lambs, Halloween 1 -5, etc. If lots of blood and crazy behavior on a farm in dark territoryinhabited by ageless creatures under the spell of a crazy guy is whatrocks your boat, then welcome aboard. The redeeming factor in the movie is the presence of Henry Cavill (ofthe Tudor series fame and fine actor waiting to be used in some choiceroles) and Dominic Purcell. As brothers bent on vengeance they make themost of this plot, giving it as much dignity as could be expected. Theydeserve better material as they are both fine actors and personalities.So Joel Schumacher can't really be run out of town for this movie - heat least gave the two primary actors the chance for screen time. Onlyor those who love gore. Grady Harp

2012-05-07 08:22:03

THUMBS UP JOEL SCHUMACHER THUMBS DOWN LIONSGATE

This review is from: Blood Creek (DVD) I consider myself one of the greatest JOEL SCHUMACHER fans alive. I am eagerly waiting for the day I can meet him and talk to him and touch him. (If he'll let me!) I adore him and all his work. Except this one. I bought this movie because it's a Joel Schumacher film and I was hoping for alot of extras featuring the director, but I am disappointed! I am surprised that Joel did such a dark horror film, it's a story where the good guys overcome the nazi's. I learned alot more about Hitler's Third Reich than I knew, and how that madman was capable of destroying so many lives. The movie was beautifully filmed, tastefully done. All the actors played their parts incredibly well. Even the gory scenes were done so well as to not turn me OFF completely. I'm not a horror film fan. It felt like parts of the story were missing. And because Lionsgate is all about promoting THEMSELVES we will never get to see the deleted scenes that would have defined the movie. KUDOS to you Joel Schumacher. You did GOOD. Stick with drama or comedy, tho. And get away from LIONSGATE. It's obvious they even tried to edit YOU out of the film.BOO on you LIONSGATE for not allowing any extra features and instead putting way too many of your previews in place of a making-of featurette. There's not even a Biography section for the actors! The only thing extra is the director's commentary which is wonderful because I love to hear that wonderful old man talk!

Siamois 2012-05-07 02:36:54

Wampyre story

It's been a while since I have seen so many cool concepts thrown into ahorror film. We get everything from action to dialogue-drivenhistorical context. The film throws ample nods to "wampyres" as theyevolved in culture, including German cinema. It is no wonder thatseveral viewers have debated whether this is a "zombie" or "vampire"flick when actually, these two modern phenomenon grew originally fromthe same source. Joel Shumacher's latest project is rather ambitious. The starts startsin pre-WWII America with German immigrants that sets a cold, creepymood with a slow pace. It then shifts to modern times and quickly gainsa lot of speed. Unfortunately, the narrative at the beginning is notterribly helpful for what unfolds later. And several plot holes andincongruities make it hard to suspend disbelief. As a result, all theweird ingredients that could have made this an absolute classic (Norserune magic, Nazis, vampires with slave zombies and some sort ofunwilling cultists) instead just become a nice little horror that couldspawn several direct-to- video sequels. The main weakness of Town Creek is the numerous inconsistencies when itcomes to the powers and weaknesses of the main antagonist. He holdscertain powers over death but they are poorly explained and seem toonly serve as device to advance the story as needed. There's talk of athird eye, but it's unclear what it does. There's talk he can't feedoff his own blood and bones belonging to his family line are introducedbut with little effect. There's talk people are forced to feed him butthe whole process is confused, since they were apparently able to holdhim thanks to runes. Why feed him at all then?Watch for several cool references to beliefs and artisticrepresentation of "wampyres" as seen through numerous cultures and erasand as social commentary on nazi Germany. It is worth it just for that.But big fans of classic horror will lament what could have been withone more pass at the screenplay.

thesar-2 2012-05-05 21:48:11

Bloody Good Time

Though I know Schumacher is an established and good director, it'sstill hard to forgive him for practically ruining the Batman franchise.Town Creek is definitely a good redemption piece.I will admit, the first 40 minutes of the 90 total minutes had my headspinning at what this is all about. It didn't help that the originaltitle was Blood Creek then changed to Town Creek. I definitely agreedwith the "blood" part of the first name, but was/still am confused onthe "creek" and "town" words. Sure, there's a creek involved, forall-but 56 seconds, but as far as I remember, there isn't much of a"town;" the overwhelming majority takes place on a farm.At any rate, the movie begins to unravel and it quickly becomes clearon what this movie's about. And, frankly, it's not that bad at all.The movie begins more than half a century ago with the Nazi's missionto locate the occult and its items of witchcraft located in…WestVirginia, USA. (Really? Uh, okay, then.) An officer's willing to paytop dollar ($150! Fine, today would probably be over a thousand) weeklyfor the search on their land. They reluctantly agree and he finds whathe's looking for quite quickly. The power (literally) goes to his headand, now, let's fast forward to the present… …Brothers reunite afterone went missing for two years, and older brother, Victor (Purcell)leads his younger sibling, Evan (Cavill) to a sectioned off/privatefarmland to shoot up the inhabitants. Other than loyalty to hisbrother, paramedic Evan really shouldn't be involved in suchcold-hearted murders, but, alas, he goes, attempts this and with hisinner-conflicts, he botches a lot of Victor wants to achieve: thedeaths of the entire family living on this farm. But, he's also lookingfor a "him" also living there.It's quickly apparent the family's equally afraid of the "man" livingon their property, and once released from their makeshift prison, allliteral hell breaks loose.Not too hard to place two and two together to discover both who theevil "man" is as it is the family living at the estate, but that'sbesides the many points/plot twists the movie brings up.It turns out the man can't enter the house where Evan, Victor andwhat's remaining of the family is hiding out due to symbols they'vepainted on the windows/doors. But, the "man" can kill mammals and sendthem in to get the blood he needs to "advance to the next stage." Quitefrankly, I've given away a lot of the surprises in this feature, but Iassure you, as I stop here in the plot synopsis section of my review,there's so much more to the storyline. As is there are other goodqualities to the movie.Like I said, Schumacher is an established director; he knows how tobuild suspense, creativity and make a movie. This is a well craftedfilm and does have surprisingly good acting on all fronts. And thoughthe plot (or I should say, the second portion of the movie) isn't themost original (SEE: Tales from the Crypt Presents Demon Knight) it'sstill entertaining and recommended for horror buffs.Just do what I did, brave through the first 40 or so minutes and letthe pieces fall into place and have fun.

lqe 2012-05-05 07:31:16

Ugh

I'm one of about 300 people who have seen this movie... and it kind ofsucks.. Joel Schumacer is the 2nd worst director ever (behind Michaelbay) and the movie goes from  confusing to stupid to flat out silly.Dominic Purcell delivers his typical "strong bald man with optionalfacial hair" performance he gives in everything he's in.. the othercast members did nothing to stand out. it's also slow, boring, and I was the only one in the theater. it wasstill much better than "Drag Me To Hell". and I did enjoy the ending.But all in all, a typical Lionsgate release. They did nothing topromote this film, changed titles multiple times (at theaters it waslisted as "Blood Creek"), and it went straight to the cheap theater ona very limited release, and it will probably be a box office bomb.

2012-05-05 01:20:15

It Is Better Than Batman & Robin!

Joel Schumacher has been making movies for a very long time, and while not ever looked upon as a great director, he has made some classics. He's given us Grisham thrillers(The Client, A Time To Kill), suspense thrillers(8MM, Phonebooth, The Number 23), goofy comedies(Car Wash, The Incredible Shrinking Woman), and single-handedly ruined the Batman franchise(Batman Forever, Batman & Robin). He's dabbled in many genres, but a straight to video Nazi themed horror film is not something I would have expected from him. Sure he dabbled a bit in horror with The Lost Boys and Flatliners, but those were kind of pop-horror, especially The Lost Boys. I'm not saying those films were bad by any means, I love them both. Blood Creek is a different beast altogether though.Henry Cavill plays a paramedic who's brother had gone missing two years prior. One night, his brother, Dominic Purcell, returns and immediately drags Cavill along with him on a search and destroy revenge mission on a small farm up Town(Blood)Creek. Purcell had been captured and held prisoner on this farm by a family that had taken in a German lodger back in the 30s. This German, Michael Fassbender, was actually a Nazi carrying out experiments with the occult on orders from Hitler. You know, that whole Third Reich/occult thing.Fassbender was one of many Nazis assigned to track down ancient runestones scattered across the country. They hold the secret to immortality along with blood drinking rituals and other hocus pocus. As a result, Fassbender has lived all these years, growing more and more powerful. The family he lived with also has caught the immortality bug, but sometime along the way, they all realized Fassbender's evil plans and have kept him imprisoned on their farm all these years. The catch is the occasional blood sacrifice victim that's needed to keep Fassbender from being unleashed into the world. Purcell was one of those blood donors until he got away, and now he's back with his brother, Cavill, to go all out Bronson on the family and Fassbender.What follows is the standard Night of the Living Dead scenario with Purcell, Cavill, and the immortal family trapped inside the farmhouse(Fassbender cannot enter the house), fighting off Fassbender and his gang of resurrected humans and farm animals.It's as schlocky as it sounds, and as fun as it sounds too. Schumacher may be a Hollywood heavy hitter, but this movie is as direct to video as it comes....with a higher budget and better production values than most. It's fast paced, violent, gory, and best of all it's entertaining.Yeah, it's not 100% original, there's some crappy CGI, there's some plot holes(why does the immortal family look fine, but Fassbender looks all mummified and gruesome? That's one of many questions you could ask), but who really cares? This is a Nazi-themed horror film, and those aren't really known for being great examples of American Film making.Considering the avalanche of straight to video horror films available, most of which disappoint, Blood Creek manages to rise above many of them and delivers the goods.Joel Schumacher-who knew??

McQualude 2012-05-04 14:08:37

Amateurish and poorly written

The acting is passable and the concept interesting but the film is sopoorly written as to defeat any positive. Thirty minutes in and thefilm could have ended. If you want to kill a houseful of people, why goin and chase them down one at a time, risking capture or injury, justset the house on fire and shoot them as they come out or let them burnup. Sure, he was looking for one person in particular but what did itmatter, he knew exactly where to look and found him within minutesanyway. Story over. Or he could have brought the police and story over.Ultimately there is no reason for the last hour except as padding andthat is exactly how it felt.

2012-05-02 00:16:09

Not too shabby!

Though this could have been cleaner, such as really thinking out the powers and motives of the Big Bad, there are some original and effective set pieces here. I'm betting the actors, who all have some pretty impressive resumes, were not expecting a straight-to-dvd production, so I expect this started life far better than it ended up. There's loads for gore fans, a bit to chew on for legend fans, though as I said, this could have been better presented, and eye candy for The Tudors fans. I've never seen the Tudors, but that boy (Cavill) is so beautiful, it's distracting.The brothers' relationship is interesting but not quite convincing. Cavill's character is annoying in his insistence of going against his bro's lead, but I don't believe in their deciding to have a fight in such a life-or-death situation. Just a little more groundwork detailing Cavill's resentment would have gone a long way. And the middle gets a bit tedious.Performances are very good and that makes up for a lot. This was not too shabby an effort.

zinglorion 2012-05-01 09:04:16

Pretty good under rated flick

I watched this as a $1 Red Box rental not expecting much....I waspleasantly surprised. Blood Creek set a great dark mood, the storyneeded a little work but was good nonetheless(Who isn't kindafascinated with Hitlers leanings toward the occult) The story itselfwas fascinating even if it was a little bit underdeveloped. I'm notsure why so many people didn't "get" the ending?!?!I thought the actingwas pretty decent. I even felt that creepy sensation at parts and alittle anxiety for the protagonists. Plenty of gore for fans wantingthat too. Anyway, as a die hard horror fan I would definitely recommendthis entertaining Vamp-flick!

2012-04-29 03:24:07

Not enough for my taste but worth a look.

This review is from: Blood Creek (DVD) While I was a bit disappointed in this movie it still kept me watching till the end. When the movie began I thought I might have to shut it off and watch some crap on t.v., but as the movie progressed I found myself sitting through it to see where it would go. That being said sadly the movie did not go where I thought it should have. I felt there was not enough information to make a some what interesting story more compelling. While this movie didn't quite deliver for me it is still worth a look for the right price. The sad thing is this could have been a great horror movie, instead it fell way short.

2012-04-29 01:17:39

A pleasant surprise!

After spending almost an hour at the video store wandering around and not finding anything to rent that looked interesting or that I hadn't already seen I stumbled upon this one. It sounded interesting so I figured I'd take a chance and rent it. As I put the dvd into the player my expectations were very low and I half expected that I would end up stopping it halfway through and watch something on tv instead. However once the movie started I was immediately intrigued and drawn in. It was actually not half bad, it wouldn't win any Oscars but it was certainly better than a lot of movies I have gone to see in theaters over the years. The story was interesting and original, the acting wasn't too bad, it was well directed and edited with plenty of supernatural horror mixed with fast paced action sequences. I think this is one of those movies that will appeal to certain people and appeal not at all to certain others. So I can't tell you that you will like this movie and I won't, however if you are like me and you like a little supernatural horror mixed action sequences and zombies, then you might just enjoy this flick. I would recommend renting this movie before you buy, personally however if I had bought this movie without seeing it first I wouldn't have been regretted it. This is one I will add to my dvd collection now.