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Quote:

Zombies are the middle children of the otherworldly family. Vampires are the oldest brother who gets to have a room in the attic, all tripped out with a disco ball and shag carpet. Werewolves are the youngest, the babies, always getting pinched and told they're cute. With all that attention stolen away from the middle child zombie, no wonder she shuffles off grumbling, "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha."

- Kevin James Breaux

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Film Review: BLOOD VESSEL (2019)


A group of survivors on a lifeboat think that they’ve found salvation on the open sea when a large ship comes into view at the beginning of Blood Vessel (2019).  The lifeboat is filled with a mixture of characters including the Captain Malone (Robert Taylor) who managed to help save as many as he could from his ship’s disaster.  When they come across a German boat they think it is salvation despite the fear that the Germans may kill them instead of holding them as prisoners of war during WWII.  But when they get on the deck of the ship they realize that ship is a ghost ship and there is no one around.

 

It’s not long before they discover a young girl hiding and a German soldier who would rather shoot the girl first and ask questions later.  The language barrios between everyone is also a problem and when some of their group are suddenly killed by the German who wants to kill the girl, the group discovers that there are more secrets to behold on the ship and that they have no idea what they have stepped into.

 

Soon, the group discovers too late that the German ship’s precision cargo were coffins containing sleeping vampires and that the girl is just one of their biggest problems.  Now the group must find a way off the ship before they all become victims of one of the greatest dangers they’ve ever faced separate from Hitler’s army.

 

Written by Jordan Prosser and Justin Dix (who also directors) the film borrows a lot from Death Ship (1980) and John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) while has the atmosphere of Virus (1999) and Ghost Ship (2002).  There are also some nods to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the plight of the crew on the Demeter ship.  The film is extremely well made but borrows so much from other films that it’s hard to see if it has any original ideas of its own.  This is not necessarily a bad thing as it is quite entertaining and the horror aspects and gore are very effective so the film never comes off as boring.

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