Blood Bags

Only got half way through the film & had to stop. I have watched a LOT of bad films but the acting in this was SO stiff, it might as well be buffering every minute like some kind of stop motion animation. I would never usually tell someone to give up on their dreams but everyone "acting" in this film needs to stop trying to act. Sounds harsh but this film was the equivalent of watching people who clearly can't sing audition for the X factor or something. Honestly, this film was painful to watch (& not in the good horror way).

"Blood Bags" had my attention from the title sequence with its solidifying moments of placing a light on real life medical macabre, Gunther's Disease. It is close to the chilling excitement I felt over the inbreeding images teased in the "Wrong Turn" and "Hills Have Eyes" franchises. Plus this film sets up a creepy cool urban legend of day trip urban adventurism gone wrong. It is a clever, well developed concept that hits all the horror tropes without being boring. The acting is pretty good. A few of the scenes feel a bit over-rehearsed, but the majority of the film feels quality. The cast, though stereotypical, are interesting and fully developed. Plus they are easily relatable personas. I do wish that the "creature" and old man's story would have gone deeper into their history. I feel that desire is purely my own morbid fascination with these two characters. Still there is plenty here to invest in. The horror is what we come to expect and fully love in quality Italian horror. It feels contemporary and yet pays tribute to classic giallo and shock horror. For some of "Blood Bags" length I kept recalling the thrilling enjoyment I get watching "Cat O' Nine Tails". This film is entertaining, creepy and atmospheric without over exploitation of the gore aspect- which will make shock horror gorehounds happy. Overall "Blood Bags" is a fun, modern giallo that never rips off it's roots, nor does it become boring. The flaws are minimal and the story is chilling, straightforward horror. For me this film offers a great example of where Italian horror should thrive in modern horror. I think the weakest moment in the film may be at the end, it should have ended with a bit more "shock'n'awe". Still "Blood Bags" is worth checking out. Pay attention to the nice love letter to Argento toward the end of the film- classic.

Here's the summary they told us: "A creature stalks the corridors of an abandoned mansion. Two friends break in and discover that all exits have been sealed off and the creature that hunts them is growing hungry for their blood; there is no escape." For Emiliano Ranzani's first directorial effort, this looks halfway decent. One thing that puts it over the top is that the credit sequence looks like it had some actual thought behind it. So many direct to streaming releases just have crappy fonts on a bad background. Blood Bags actually tries. Ranzani and co-writer Scarlett Amaris also worked with Richard Stanley for his film The Theatre Bizarre. There's also an attempt to pay homage to Fulci and Argento by having a backstory where the killer and his brother suffer from a real malady, Gunther's disease, which is close to vampirism. Hey - it's nice to see some horror, any horror, come out of Italy these days. This was shot in Turin, the same city where The Cat o' Nine Tails and Four Flies on Grey Velvet were once filmed.

Very slow going. Not a lot of action. About half the dialogue was in Italian without subtitles so that didn't help. Why is it when the bad guy is strangling someone, they never see them reaching for a gun? A lot of heavy raspy breathing and blurry photography. Give this a pass.