Lara Gilchrist in Blood Hunters.
For the modern moviegoer, indie-genre films are always a risky proposition. Why take a chance on an unknown quantity that only offers the faint promise of cheap thrills and untapped talent when there are thousands of other, better-known productions available at the touch of a button? Why risk two hours of your life on cover art that looks cool and terrifying and everything else a horror movie is supposed to offer, when what's behind that marketing could be as dull as simply staring at your Netflix queue? That's the question I returned to over and over while watching Blood Hunters, a fine-enough go-round for Canadian director Tricia Lee, but just not unique or skillfully executed to spark a recommendation, even for the genre-curious. A locked-door thriller that makes decent use of its spare set and limited budget, Lee's film tries to find the tension in a host of perhaps interesting themes (addiction, parental responsibility), but all are handled with a lack of finesse. As for the performances … well, I'm not going to get into that in this small space, because that would be a true horror show.
Barry Hertz