If you're going to make an independent horror film there are a few things that you can add to the mix that are almost guaranteed to catch the interest of your typical indie horror audience.
Lesbians? Blood Soaked has 'em.
Nazis? Yep, they're here.
Gore? Oh yeah.
In short, writer/director Peter Grendle's festival favorite Blood Soaked has just about everything you could possibly want from an independent horror film and, maybe best of all, Grendle doesn't hold back in creating a film that is dark, involving, scary, and incredibly graphic.
Did I mention the lesbians?
Winner of 3rd Place for the Audience Choice at PollyGrind, Blood Soaked is an almost relentlessly brutal affair that will please gorehounds while fans of more old school horror, like the slow building suspenseful kind, will likely find themselves fast forwarding through the most excruciating parts.
Um, that would be most of the film.
Heather Wilder is Piper, a college freshman who arrives on campus with a boyfriend on the sidelines and a willingness to experiment that is quickly matched by Ashley (Rachel Corona), an older student and an outwardly proud lesbian. The two make themselves rather happy under the New Mexico sky before Sadie (Laina Grendle) and Katie (Hayley Derryberry) enter the picture.
In case you're wondering, Sadie and Katie are the Nazis and they're pretty darn sick. They're daughters of an escaped SS scientist and they're not exactly planning a welcoming party for Piper and Ashley.
There's not a whole lot more to Blood Soaked, but I'm fairly sure you already realize that if you're expecting a round of "master thespian" this is probably not the film you're looking for anyway. This doesn't mean that the cast is in anyway inept. In fact, they're unusually strong for this kind of film. It just kind of goes without saying that the whole purpose of Blood Soaked is that everyone actually get soaked in blood.
Makes sense, eh?
You should probably realize that Blood Soaked is a low-budget indie and, as such, the production values are occasionally just a bit hit-and-miss. I've always thought that such a thing was rather appropriate for this type of film, though it can be distracting when particularly graphic scenes don't exactly come across as graphic.
For the record, that doesn't happen here.
Grendle does make an occasional questionable choice or two, though my philosophy is typically to respect the filmmaker's choice and to give them credit for artistic integrity. While I may not agree with every choice made here, and I don't, it's clear what Grendle's going for and he does a mighty fine job of getting there.
The film's leading quartet is uniformly strong, though Blood Soaked is weakened a bit when it comes to supporting players that are a bit paper thin and portrayed as such. The film's original music occasionally works quite nicely, though it also occasionally adds to the film's feeling of "low-budget."
That does happen here.
For those seeking a cinematic experience of the more hardcore variety, Wild Eye Releasing's VOD/DVD release of Blood Soaked may be exactly what you're looking for on that rainy night when you're home alone and wishing you were surrounded by lesbians and Nazis and horror.
Oh my.
Written by Richard Propes
The Independent Critic
