Review: 'Blood Punch' is a Gloriously Gory Good Time

Jackie Michele ’19 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

With the season of the horror movie upon audiences once again, it’s easy to roll one’s eyes at a typical trite tale. It seems as though every horror movie idea has been done already and, what’s worse, they have been done to death. Blood Punch may not have the most original plot, but what it lacks in originality it makes up for in something the other movies do not have. It’s incredibly self-aware, to the point that you will most likely laugh more watching this movie than you will shriek in terror.
The film starts off in a rehab clinic, where nerdy genius Milton (Milo Cawthrone) meets sexy bad girl Skyler (Olivia Tennet). It’s immediately apparent that Skyler is not looking to get clean. In fact, she’s looking for a cook, someone to help her and her psychopathic boyfriend Russell (Ari Boyland) make meth one last time before they run off with the profits and live happily ever after.

When Milton is hesitant, Skyler seduces him and he falls head over heels and decides he has to help her. The three escape to a cabin in the woods, but the catch is that the cabin is on a Native American burial ground and since Russell is more than a little crazy, it does not take too long before blood is spilled on the hallowed ground. The three end up trapped in an endless cycle of days, doomed to live forever in the cabin.
The story is a basically a gory Groundhog’s Day so it’s hard to give it credit for originality, but despite having a rather old plot, the characters bring a story to the screen that makes it hard to look away. The two main characters cannot just be given a simple biography. Milton is not just a nerdy genius. Skyler is not just a sexy bad girl. There’s a deeper connection between them and each has a backstory and alternate sides to them that make the audience want to see them escape and live happily ever after like they planned.

Small jokes are thrown into the movie, but the reason it’s hard not to laugh is that the characters are mostly unbothered by their situation through most of the movie. Of the three in the cabin, at least two die multiple times, just to wake up and do it all again in the morning. They seem to not be panicking, just annoyed that they are trapped for all eternity. Each death is not gory and tragic, but instead comedic and clever. The characters argue less over how to escape and more over the nuisance it is that they have to keep killing.
If you’re looking to be scared out of your wits, you should probably look somewhere else but if you’re looking for a laugh and a gory good time, Blood Punch is available now on DVD.
Overall Grade: B
Watch The Trailer:
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjX1HI5-dOM[/embedyt]