RISE - BLOOD HUNTER
DVD
Region 1. Sony Pictures
OK,
let's be upfront about this: Rise - Blood Hunter
is pretty throwaway stuff. Cobbling together ideas from a myriad
of sources - Blade, Buffy/Angel,
and The Crow spring immediately to mind - it's
lightweight vamp-goth chic with a smattering of gore, nudity
and action.
None of which should be seen as a bad thing.
The story is pretty simple. Reporter Sadie Blake (Lucy Liu)
is ivestigating the goth underworld when she gets a little too
close to a vampire cult, and winds up in the morgue. Where she
wakes up, punches her way out and embarks on a trail of vengeance
against the vampires who made her an unwilling member of their
ranks. Along the way, she's aided by cop Michael Chiklis, who's
daughter was vamped at the start of the film.
Nothing
overly unexpected happens throughout the rest of the film -
Liu tracks down the various cult members in reverse order of
importance and struggles with her own blood lust in much the
way you'd expect. But it looks good, spills enough blood to
keep the gorehounds content and has a few striking moments -
the corpses suspended upside down, bleeding out into bowls;
Liu's awakening in the morgue drawer; and her flashback death
all stand out. And then there's Lucy Liu's curiously teasing
nude scenes - long shots in shadow with brief flashes that seem
designed to wind up her admirers!
Unfortunately, the film is sluggishly paced, and the vengeance
killings are generally too simple, too generic to give any sense
of satisfaction: you really want to see her use something other
than a crossbow after a while.
On the whole though, Rise - Blood Hunter is
harmless goth-horror lite. With oddball cameos (Marilyn Manson,
would you believe?) and the same sense of knowing its place
that permeated director/writer Sebastian Gutierrez's Snakes
on a Plane (in other words, no-one is claiming this
to be art), this is undemanding, fun entertainment that looks
set to spin off into a video franchise - the sequel is already
underway.
DAVID
FLINT
BUY
THE UNRATED VERSION NOW (USA)
