Newcomer
writer/producer/director/actor Patrick Von Barkenberg’s feature film debut Blood Paradise is another one of those horror
movies involving a celebrity kidnapping ala Calvaire
or the more well known Misery where
an author finds herself in the clutches of a psychotic and murderous farmer. The difference here is that Barkenberg and his
co-writer and producer Andréa Winter cast themselves in the leading roles of
their horror picture with Winter as the protagonist and Barkenberg as her
boyfriend. The resulting film treads
familiar ground we’ve seen many times over before with creepy superfans, weird locals
and a buildup to bloodshed. But there’s
some inspired fun to be had along the way. Check out our earlier review published by our editor-in-chief here also!
Best-selling
crime novelist Robin Richards (Winter) has hit a creative rut when her latest
novel flops critically and commercially.
Looking for a place to retreat and break free of her writer’s block when
she isn’t playing sadomasochistic sex games with her long-haired muscle-head boyfriend
(Barkenberg), her publisher suggests a secluded farm within the Swedish
countryside. Part of the film’s charm is,
not unlike John Lurie’s sardonic television show Fishing with John, is seeing a well-to-do celebrity as a fish out
of water, unleashed in uncomfortable and unfamiliar territory with the local
denizens there to fawn over her when they aren’t creepily ogling. Needless to say, it’s all downhill from here.
For
a first-time director, the independent filmmaking venture/family affair is by
and large an enjoyable one once your impatience with the tried and true clichés
wears off. Shot in panoramic widescreen,
it makes excellent use of the countryside and gives the impression of being
completely away from civilization with no one within an earshot to hear the
unlucky author’s cries for help.
Granted,
it draws heavily from the likes of The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Misery and
especially the aforementioned Calvaire with
respect to the split personalities of the antagonistic farmer and the terror of
a person of privilege suddenly losing all access to the luxuries and safeties
they’re accustomed to. A scene where Robin
goes swimming naked only to return to find her clothes stolen will invariably remind
some of the rape-revenge shocker I Spit
on Your Grave
The
film’s best moments, incidentally, aren’t the scares which are predictable at
best for veteran horror fans, but the comic asides involving her creepy chauffeur/superfan
and his increasingly jealous agriculturalist wife who at one point even shows
up at the farm to confront Robin. One of
the funniest moments involves the man’s wife walking in on Robin and the
chauffeur, assuming an adultery is taking place, and she remarks she regularly
uses Robin’s books as toilet paper.
Barkenberg
and Winter’s collaborative debut won’t really do anything you haven’t seen
already, but for a first-timer it’s a relatively impressive debut that’s never
boring and delivers the goods gore hounds crave. For the filmmakers to put themselves out
there in the lead roles shows a certain amount of bravery, given they’re
basically creating the whole thing from the ground up. Is this indie horror debut a by-the-numbers
byproduct of familiar horror classics? Yes. Is it an otherwise fun distraction for two
hours and promising start for first-time feature filmmakers? Also yes!
--Andrew Kotwicki
