BLOOD RIVER UK DVD Review

Adam Mason's Blood River is a slippery beast, consistently playing with genre, tone, and misplaced expectations. Starting off as an almost painfully conventional riff on any number of The Hitcher-esque horror/thrillers (Breakdown and Wolf Creek in particular spring to mind, whilst the yuppie-in-peril movies of the 80s are also owed a debt) it slowly evolves into a far more complex and altogether more interesting film that tackles some rather weighty themes.

Clark (Ian Duncan) and his pregnant wife Summer (Tess Panzer) are on their way through the Nevada desert to visit her parents, when a massive blowout sends them off the road. Without a spare, they doggedly head to the nearest town on foot, bloodied and thirsty. When they arrive at the titular Blood River, it's a ghost town with only rotting animals and endless flies for company; until cowboy-styled drifter and all round religious zealot, Joseph (Andrew Howard) appears, that is. Also out of luck, he's run out of fuel a few miles away and so proposes a mutually beneficial solution. Before long Joseph is playing the couple off against each other, and in a flurry of guilt, mistrust and religiously inflected exchanges things begin to collapse for the once perfectly married couple.

 To reveal much more about the plot would ruin the cleverly judged reveal of how all the increasingly mysterious events are pulled together for a truly frightening denouement. Of course many will have already seen this between Todd's first review back in February 2008 and its imminent DVD release here in the UK, but less than generous distribution patterns have also precluded that for many.

 It's clearly a low budget piece, but makes the most of the barren landscapes and once the  drama takes hold, any misgivings are blown aside, and it's immensely gripping. Andrew Howard's performance is vivid and feral whilst Panzer and Duncan equip themselves well too as the increasingly confused couple. Like many of the best horror films Blood River thrives on its subtext, and actually brings it to the surface through a gradual shift from standard psycho-horror to a Biblically harsh judgement on humanity.

It's a brutal, troubling experience that will have you chattering away long after the credits have rolled, and presents one of the freshest takes on retribution and religious fervency for a long time.

Blood River is out on R2 UK DVD from 19th July 2010 through Revolver Entertainment.