Blood Junkie – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews

The way Blood Junkie starts is one of great promise. It captures the look of old ’80s horror films very well and even manages to get the pace right, which most modern slasher flicks miss out on. However, despite these two key ingredients, Junkie fails to provide a satisfying meal.

Rachel (Emily Treolo) and Laura (Sarah Luther) are two high school girls home alone for the weekend with some booze and a kid brother to look after. So when two older teens, Craig (Nick Sommer) and Teddy (Mike Johnson) hit on them and invite them camping in the woods they go along with it. What starts out as an awkward evening of booze, pot and fooling around ends up turning into a bloodbath when a guy in a jumpsuit and a gas mask starts taking them out one by one.

Slasher films have never really had anything in the way of character development, but this film is ridiculous. There is no element about these characters that we are ever meant to like or root for. Even in the first Friday The 13th you can root for some of the characters.

The acting isn’t that great, but that is a staple of slasher films. Neither is the plot a strong point, another staple of slasher films, but despite all of these the film is rather lacking. The film’s twist ending, another staple of the horror genre, does nothing but take away from the film. It ends up lessening what little good the film accomplishes because it renders large parts of the film impossible. But it does one thing well: give us a glimpse back into the decade of Reagan and hair metal.

It captures the ’80s feel wonderfully, with the super synth score, bad clothing attire and the slow-plodding pace of the film contributes to the retro feel that modern horror films have a hard time grasping. The costumes were really authentic and impressive, even down to the guys red underwear. Craig even has a really sweet mullet! I really understand what director Drew Rosas was going for with this film, sadly I don’t think he quite reached his goal.

Blood Junkie is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen, but is not formatted to fit your widescreen TV. Sound is in Dolby Digital Stereo. The film is made to look bad on purpose so in that sense I guess the movie looks pretty good, but the sound is awful! Even with going for that retro feel.

Commentary: Director Drew Rosas talks about the film. This is actually a really good commentary. I can honestly say I enjoyed the commentary more than the film. Rosas is very passionate about films and specifically ’80s slasher films. There was defiantly a love of the genre behind the making of this film and it comes across way better in this commentary than it does in the actual film.

Okay, this fact is worth mentioning cause it won the film over a little bit for me. Rosas paid for the film himself and made the whole thing for $7000, I think that’s pretty impressive.

Deleted Scenes: (9 min.) The only good scene here is one that shows a somewhat nice side of Craig. The rest are meh.

Photo Gallery: (20 min.) Does any film need a twenty-minute photomontage?

Plastic Fangs (2005): (11 min.) I’m really curious what happened between 2005 and 2010 because this is a pretty good little short. It’s completely lacking in plot, but really shows the directors love of Halloween. Kudos for this short film!

Trailer

And a slew of Troma themed extras.

There are a lot of elements of this film that are actually really good, but the things that are bad ruin the whole thing. I honestly which I could recommend this film, but sadly I can’t.


Troma Entertainment presents Blood Junkie. Written and Directed by Drew Rosas. Starring: Nick Sommer, Mike Johnson, Sarah Luther, Emily Treolo and Andrew Swant. Running time: 72 minutes. Not Rated: Contains nudity, scary themes and violence. Released on DVD: May 10, 2011.


Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years