Capsule Film Reviews #66: I Sell the Dead and Blood Creek.

I Sell the Dead (2008)
Starring: Dominic Monaghan; Ron Perlman; Larry Fessenden; Angus Scrimm; John Speredakos; Eileen Colgan; Brenda Cooney.
Directed by: Glenn McQuaid.
Colour/85 Minutes/NR

Dominic Monaghan is Arthur Blake: a grave robber by trade, who is awaiting his execution. Visited by the odd Father Duffy (Ron Perlman), he exchanges his life story for a bottle of whisky. He takes us back to his start as an apprentice grave robber of the slimy pro Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden). He relates their early exploits digging up corpses for the evil Dr. Vernon Quint (Angus Scrimm) -- which leads them to more and more encounters with the supernatural (vampires, zombies...and something a bit more "out there") -- to going into business themselves; teaming up with the ambitious Fanny Bryers (Brenda Cooney), and their troubles with a rival gang of grave robbers, made of much meaner stuff than they ever where. This is a feature length remake of director Glenn McQuaid's 13 minute short The Resurrection Apprentice, from 2005 (Fessenden and Cooney starred in that as well). It's briskly-paced and it has a lot in common with the sort of classic Hammer or Amicus stuff a lot of die-hard fans like, although there's a lot more black humour running throughout the film than you would usually find in those sort of films. Good performances from the leads, and it's nice to see Angus Scrimm ham it up as only he can (damn it though: Phantasm V is never going to happen is it?). On the negative side of things, although there is a nice twist ending, just about anyone can see it coming a mile away, and the brisk pace chops the film up, making it feel a bit too episodic, leaving one wanting a bit more from the various plot points they touched on. Still, a pretty good rental or even a buy.

Blood Creek (2009)
Starring: Henry Cavill; Dominic Purcell; Emma Booth; Michael Fassbender; Rainer Winkelvoss; László Mátray; Joy McBrinn; Shea Whigham.
Directed by: Joel Schumacher.
Colour and B&W/90 Minutes/R

In 1930s rural West Virginia an immigrant German family are contacted by a Nazi occultist (Michael Fassbender). He wishes to stay with them, pretending to be a visiting scholar, offering them money for their room, board, and time. They soon learn that his visit is concerned with tapping into the powers contained in an unearthed Viking rune stone. The family go against him, trapping both he and themselves in a cursed supernatural prison of sorts, that exists in its own time bubble, that requires blood sacrifices to keep it up and running. This of course leads to various people in the area going missing over the years. In 2007 one such victim manages to escape, after being captured for many months, and enlists the help of his shell-shocked brother to go back and take revenge on the family for what they did to him, unaware of the much more horrible secret they are keeping buried on their property. Trapped on a farm with a seriously pissed-off Nazi occultist, who can raise the recently dead (human or otherwise), is not a situation one wants to find themselves in. Joel Schumacher is a love him or hate him sort of director, and this little swim into the ocean of direct-to-video horror is not one of his best efforts. Still, with his and Michael Fassbender's names attached, one may be interested in checking this out. The setting and the mood generally works. The Nazi occult angle stuff is effective enough if you don't think about it too hard (it helps if you're like me and really dig that sort of plot device), and the film is well-made action-horror film over all, despite the fact that Schumacher had arguments with writer David Kajganich over the script, and eventually rewrote parts of it himself. Is that why there's some downright terrible dialogue and logic gaps here? Who knows. Thankfully the actors are good enough to sell it for the most part. Okay rental.