Dry Blood (2017) Online

I never write reviews, but this film is so unique and well thought out that I think it deserves a second look. I'll agree that the acting is subpar, however the story and the chills more than make up the difference. The makeup work, for the horror elements, is superb and the imagery is frightening. I even watched this a second time, so my wife could see it, and found there are ample clues and hints to the ending - a lot of detail was given to the details.

Give it a watch because for what it is - a low budget indie horror - it really shines.

This is a film that improved in my reckoning only after I had seen it and discussed it a bit. When I was watching it, I took things more or less at face value and consequently I wasn't overly impressed but on reflection there was a bit more going on with this one when you analyse it a little. The story has a junkie called Brian head off to a cabin in a remote mountain area in an attempt to get off the narcotics. Two people enter his orbit, a female friend called Anna who wants to help him and a local cop hell bent on harassing him. All the while, he experiences frightening hallucinations that seem to be connected in some way.

Directed by Kelton Jones who plays the cop, with a lead actor Clint Carney who also wrote the screenplay, this is a film that I think suffers from not having better actors. While Jones is actually alright as the police officer, it's the lead actors Carney and Jaymie Valentine, who plays Anna, that let the side down here. Both are seemingly primarily musicians and it shows. Carney is more irritating than truly convincing as a troubled addict, while Valentine practically sleep-walks through the entire film. It's possible that this is an intentional stylised form of acting to illustrate the dream-like nature of events but my gut feeling is it's more likely just not terribly good acting. So from a dramatic perspective the film is pretty much handicapped from the word go on account of this. But the nightmare imagery that punctuates the story is very well done, it doesn't overdo it and it is quite effectively creepy. In the final section of the film, it has to be said things do get very disturbing indeed. Firstly, the police officer is dispatched with a gunshot to the face and soon after Brian's ex-wife, her new husband and little girl show up and are all murdered. The woman has a bottle stamped into her face and the little girl has her head cut off with a knife. This latter scene is extremely disturbing stuff with the girl's murder in particular shot in graphic detail. It crosses into territory you just don't see in movies (which is a good thing) but its visceral nature certainly is hard to forget and will no doubt give this feature some notoriety.

But it was only when you start to piece things together that the whole starts to emerge. My take on it is that this is the third occasion Brian has retreated to this location on cold turkey. The first time murdering the family, the second killing his friend Anna and then most recently shooting the cop. The clues are all there, including his visions of the dead woman and the headless girl. He also has an seemingly irrational revulsion associated with the kitchen knife and there is also the scene where he goes into the cellar where he sees something, which we see out of focus in the foreground – it seems clear that the bodies of the family are down here and that he did go down there on the visit that Anna accompanied him. What confuses things is that the narrative is non-linear with flashbacks interspersed side-by-side, along with hallucinations which is muddled even further on account of Brian being a very unreliable drug-addled narrator. It all adds up to a film which seems a little lacking if taken at face value but which has a lot more going for it when you realise it is very fragmented and more complex than it first appears. It still suffers on account of its poor acting but it is a film which has a story which is much more interesting than originally meets the eye.

I came across this just randomly scrolling, and in typical me fashion, I gave it a chance. I'm not going to say it blew the doors off, but it was definitely worth a watch. It starts off really slow, and the acting is terrible, them two things alone almost took me out of it, but I'm happy I let the film play out. There's some great practical effects work in this, the gore is great, it's surprisingly shocking in a few scenes, and even the CGI was effective. The bad part of this is the story gets a little convoluted at the end, and the acting is dreadful (like I stated up above). Fortunately the run time is less than 85 minutes, so you can get through it pretty quick. The 7 is probably a little generous, but overall I had a good experience with it, so I have no issue putting it...

If you enjoy really bad acting and a film style reminiscent of a high school production then this is right up your ally. If not don't even try watching on a lazy Sunday afternoon to save hating yourself; you definitely won't finish.

Listen, I've seen A LOT of terrible movies in my 29 years of life, but this one is right up there with the worst of them. It's a B movie at best, the acting is absolutely atrocious, the writing is a joke...I feel like Ashton Kutcher is about to pop out from somewhere and tell me that I've been Punk'd. I'm not going to bother going into the details of the movie beyond the fact that it's impossibky to follow, it makes zero sense, and it's utterly incompetent. I haven't written a review in about 8 years but I felt like I had to...Don't waste your time.

This was a genuinely good indie film. Very dark, very disturbing, and will sometimes push it too far for more sensitive viewers, but extremely well crafted. The acting is a mixed bag but the lead and protagonist are solid, so it doesn't get in the way of the story. The effects are pretty seamless which is a big plus. There were moments that made me jump yet the story pulled me in and didn't let go. Shades of The Shining yet its own unique vision. Great sound mix and music, too.

I don't know what the one star reviews are about. Yes, it's a low budget movie with limitations but the production is anything but armature. People are just getting way to jaded and as a result they're smothering good content with preconceived notions of what's good.

Like most movies there's room for improvement but I'd say it's leaps and bound better than 95% of the indie horror films that are coming out these days. I look forward to seeing more from this team.

Had potential to be a really good movie but it was really slow and the acting had me cringe. I had stopped it just before it was over, couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

I'm a huge horror fan, especially indie horror. Great horror is rare, and great indie horror - which usually suffers greatly due to budget/quality constraints - is even more rare. Dry Blood creeped the hell out of me! Not only does it stand out from the usual fare, but it has such unique, surprising, and even shocking moments and scares that all I can say is hats off to the Dry Blood team! The horror genre has been on a roll the last several years - and the budgets are getting understandably bigger - so when I see those little films that could, and then went on to freak me out a bit (in a very good way), I will give all the props in the world. Well done!

This movie that started out slow turned into the chaotic maze in the mind of an addict . It shows you what can happen when you give up control of your life and let the damned take you for a ride. PLENTY OF GORE for horror lovers !!!! Watch it without any expectations and it will surprise and delight you all the way to the end.

Please don't bother... Watching paint dry us so much more exciting and worthwhile. Two stars for the scenery....Nought for the acting and film...

Let me save you some time and tell you, just check it out. The less you know the better it's incredibly scary and gorey so if you're a fan of horror, do yourself a favor and make sure to not watch this alone, especially towards the end, good lord I'm gonna need therapy

Wow! What a ride! This movie will make you want to hide your kitchen knives! The third act, I'm still waiting to exhale! #inshock

I'll start by saying this was the worst acting I've seen in a film this far into 2019. Like wow was this painful, i didn't believe a word they said. This made Jersey Shore look more convincing than the talent that handled this material. They as some filmmakers say, "acted with their faces", and let me tell ya- even the wardrobe wasn't strong enough to at least make a photo session look good. Enough bashing.. The story was fairly typical but kept itself trippy enough to make a few scenes engaging. The vfx in here are fairly top knotch for a low budget indie horror film. Unfortunately that makes only 17 minutes of the film enjoyable, the rest will have you snoring Zzz's.

Acting is flat, this movie could be cut down to an hour. I don't know who is giving this movie all these awards at horror festivals, but they must not be used to well thought out dialogue, nor plots. This movie dragged on with the hallucinations, ghosts and the friend supposedly coming to help. Don't waste your time.