Connect with us

News

Fantastic Fest: ‘Bloodthirsty’ Hits All the Right Notes to Effectively Expand on Werewolf Lore

Published

on

Bloodthirsty

Fantastic Fest has been an intense celebration of great film and werewolves this year. Bloodthirsty fits in nicely here. It’s also a great cross-pollination of Joe Dante’s The Howling and John Fawcett’s Ginger Snaps and goes long way to elevate both body horror and lycanthrope lore.

Bloodthirsty comes from director Amelia Moses and writers Wendy Hill-Tout and singer-songwriter Lowell. The trio compliment each other nicely throughout the run of the film.

The story revolves around Grey a pop-star in the process of recording her second album after her first well-received entry. The pressure of being under the spotlight combined with her own past has caused her to have intense and often vicious hallucinations. That’s when Grey and her girlfriend Charlie receive an invitation from world renowned producer, Vaughn Daniels. The invitation takes them to a secluded cabin in the middle of the snowy wilderness where Grey begins to record her sophomore album. However, as Grey starts to record her album the hallucinations begin to become more intense and it turns out that their lovely producer Vaughn might have some murderous skeletons in his own closet.

The soundtrack for Bloodthirsty is a hungry and revealing through-line that ultimately separates this film from the pack. Each song, written by Lowell expands Grey and her character just as much as the visual FX do in terms of transformation. Added to that, the songs are just really good. I had to do a quick Google to see if the title track was available for purchase. Creating a great song is one thing, creating a great song that expands on an entire film arc is something else and boy is that done well here.

Bloodthirsty

Lead actress Lauren Beatty is absorbing and manages to create an onscreen transformation that feels entirely organic. Her ability to flawlessly and simultaneously be vulnerable, elegant and menacing all at the same time is the central piece of the film working as a whole. Beatty disappears into this role and emanates a deeply personal connection to Grey.

The isolation of the film works well as the backdrop for Grey’s psyche. Moses creates a constricting world that puts you and its main character in the same tight confines, and makes you just as desperate as her to escape.

“It’s hypnotic approach like rows of teeth

tightening around around your neck.”

Vaughn played by Greg Bryk brings an approach built out of a pure quite menace. The entire approach rests on charm. It ultimately makes the character of Vaughn someone that you would definitely want to keep your eye on but also has enough charm that you believe trusting him and following him down a possibly not so brightly lit path.

When it comes to werewolf films, its important to get down to brass tacks in the VFX. Ever since An American Werewolf in London and The Howling set the bar for on-screen transformations, it has become something that lycan films reach for. So, it’s great to see what Bloodthirsty does with its own transformation. We get the full on wolf out in a really well-done metamorphosis that uses pain as a backboard for stretching fingers and cracking maws and the reveal of an awesome monster.

I love films about writers block and the process of creating. Bloodthirsty almost frustratingly expresses the intricacies of that block and that fear of not knowing if your work will even be accepted once it does come out. The isolation, the transformation and constant self-discoveries are shown to great effect throughout. Best of all, all this could have been its very own drama picture without the horror elements and totally worked. But, the rage that an onscreen werewolf illustrates is at the core of many a writer block session.

Bloodthirsty hits all the right notes in furthering werewolf lore. It’s hypnotic approach like rows of teeth tightening around around your neck. A careful and plotted approach to the development of its characters carries nicely through a film that very much could have just been a drama and still worked. In fact, that’s what makes Bloodthirsty work as well as it does, it isn’t wearing its werewolf fangs on its sleeve. Instead the slow burn approach works here two-fold and makes the blood, gore and teeth pieces fly late in the film. Bloodthirsty is heatbreaking, transformative and gory, and takes you in places that few lycan films have gone before.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

Published

on

Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

Published

on

The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading

Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

Published

on

Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Continue Reading