Blu-ray Reviews: Bound to Vengeance & Bloodsucking Bastards

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews, Top Story

Sometimes a double feature of different tones of horror helps keep the nightmares away. After an intense scare, it’s nice to have a little bit of bloody camp. While Scream Factory released Bound to Vengeance and Bloodsucking Bastards as single releases, they be paired together for a frightening Fall night. Both films are recent productions. Both films deal with the primal fear of being stuck in an unforgiving space with a sadist in charge. Although the difference being that Bound is about a kidnapper and Bloodsucking places a telemarketer in charge. Both roles are about soul crushing your victims.

Bound to Vengeance starts sweet enough with Eve (Tina Ivlev) flirting with a video camera in a park. It could be innocent or the start of an adult video. Although innocent quickly vanishes. A creepy van cruises through the desert. Deep in the basement of a decrepit house is Eve chained to the floor and looking rough. She’s been kidnapped. Luckily there’s not much on screen torture before she beats up her captor and escapes from the basement. Turns out the neferious Phil (Kingpin‘s Richard Tyson) has other women trapped at other locations. She finds the evidence. Instead of contacting the authorities and letting them sort it out, she takes control of Phil. She intends on making him free his slaves. This makes sense since you know a guy like this would lawyer up and let those women stay trapped. Ivlev goes from sweet to survivor to rescuer without losing believable in her character. She nails the shock moment when she realizes how she ended up in the basement for all those months. The 79 minute running time has it fast passed. There’s little time to think as she leads him around to his various hiding houses. Bound to Vengeance is much more inspirational than I Spit On Your Grave.

Bloodsucking Bastards explores the concept of what’s the best office space for a sadistic killer to find victims. The simple answer is a telemarketing call center. Why? Because employees normally have no clue what happened to co-workers that go missing. You get hired and immediately stuck on a phone. There’s no real time to socialize as wave after wave of calls hit your phone that’s attached directly to your head. People don’t hit their quota; they get fired. People reach their breaking point; they quit. Faces come and go without anyone carrying since nobody is at their desk for 20 years and a gold watch. There’s nobody around to remember the missing after a few months. A murdering co-worker could probably slaughter a 100 people and toss them in a dumpster and the manager would just get fired for a poor retention rate. It’s a metaphorical slaughterhouse of humanity that can easily transition into a real killing floor. Bloodsucking Bastards takes place in the heart of a telemarketing company that’s out to sell crap to unsuspecting folks. Things start out on a romantic comedy level when Evan (Dollhouse‘s Fran Kranz) tells his girlfriend no when she admits she loves him. How can he resist the charms of Emma Fitzpatrick (The Social Network). His coworker give him crap for screwing up. But he doesn’t care. What people really care about is the arrival of a new manager Max (Pedro Pascal, Oberyn Martell on Game of Thrones). He’s got raw charisma as he pumps up the gang to sell more crap over the phone. The Boss (Joel Murray, Mad Men and the funniest of the Murray brothers) is pleased with the change. But then changes get made in the office power structure. Instead of the usual shifting of power and layoffs, works begin getting killed. Those who have good ratings are turned into vampires. Bloodsucking Bastards is rather funny since it picks an office environment where being soulless and undead is considered a great goal on your resume. Will Evan and his co-workers survive? Or will they receive a fate worse than COBRA?

The video for both film is 2.35:1 for both films. The 1080p transfers are great. Bound has a richer cinematography palate with a plenty of murky spaces used for the dungeons. The audio for both films is DTS-HD 5.1 that makes you fear what’s coming around the corners. Both films are subtitled.

DVD of the film with the bonus features.

Trailer (1:37) promises the escape and attempt to free the other women.

Scream Factory presents Bound To Vengeance. Directed by: José Manuel Cravioto. Screenplay by: Rock Shaink Jr.. Starring: Richard Tyson, Tina Ivlev, Amy Okuda & Bianca Malinowski. Rated: Not Rated. Running Time: 79 minutes. Released: November 10, 2015.

Commentary with Dr. God is the five members of the comedy troupe that wrote, directed, produced and acted in the phone. They riff off each other as they swap stories. They swear the blood is real.

Outtakes (3:21) are flubs and lost moments.

BSB: On Set (3:45) is about dealing with being covered in blood for a long period of time.

Trailer (2:31) promises an office full of blood and guts. Janitors will be scared.

Four Easter Eggs are hidden as Easter eggs.

Scream Factory presents Bloodsucking Bastards. Directed by: Brian James O’Connell. Screenplay by: Dr. God & Ryan Mitts. Starring: Fran Kranz, Pedro Pascal, Joey Kern, Joel Murray and Emma Fitzpatrick. Rated: Not Rated. Running Time: 84 minutes. Released: November 3, 2015.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.