Blood Shed (2014) Directed by Patrick Hasson & Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria

This horror movie may not have the best story, best character handling or the most tension in it, it at least never feels or looks like a terrible movie. But that's about the best and most positive thing I can say about this movie!

Don't get me wrong, it's an absolutely terrible genre movie but it at least is still better looking than most other genre movies, made with a similar budget. I also can't say that it steals or 'borrows' from a ton of other and much better known horror movies, unlike most other modern genre movies, so yes, the movie also does still feel like an original one. The movie therefore also never turns into a completely unwatchable- or annoyingly bad one, despite the fact that I still can't say much good about this movie.

There's plenty wrong with it. First of all, it story feels incredibly messy, despite its simple sounding premise and simplistic settings (the entire movie is set inside a self storage facility). It's because there is never a good focus and there truly isn't a clear beginning, middle and end to this movie. Things just happen, without a good build up to any of the suspense and mystery and when it does attempt to develop things, it tends to often turn into something far too ludicrous and implausible, even by genre standards.

But a big problem also are the movie its characters. The main character, played by Gabriel De Santi, looks and sounds constantly depressed and there is nothing worse than having to watch a constantly depressed protagonist sleepwalk through a movie, while the movie does still wants you to care for him and become interested in his story and personality. Well, needless to say that it doesn't really work out too well and unfortunately all of the other characters in the movie aren't much good either. They are either too weird or goofy and in the long run most of them really don't add anything to the movie or story at all, not in the least because all of them remain terribly underdeveloped.

The killer of the movie is also an incredibly weak- and far from interesting or very threatening one. It's also a big problem that there are hardly any killings in this movie and it also truly isn't heavy on its blood or gore. This movie perhaps sounds like a very straightforward and formulaic slasher but I really wouldn't even call it a slasher. There really isn't enough slashing and hacking for that and the emphasis of the movie also never gets put on any of the slasher elements of the story.

So if this isn't a slasher, is it at least a horror? Well, sure it's a horror but just because I don't know what to call it otherwise. It's a horror but that doesn't mean it's filled with any good scares or creative killings in it. The atmosphere is decent enough, also thanks to its dark and crammed settings but this movie is doing far too little with it really. This movie definitely had some real potential if you would ask me but it seems to have absolutely no idea what to do with any of it or even how to turn this movie into a remotely good, interesting or effective enough genre movie.

The movie never takes off, which perhaps is the best way to sum it up. All of the right ingredients for a decent genre movie were there really but the story feels too messy, the build up far too weak and mostly non-existent, the acting below par and there's basically nothing interesting, exciting or enjoyable about this movie to ever make it a remotely decent one.

3/10

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