Blood River (2009)

Adam Mason has quickly become one of our favorite directors at The Liberal Dead. He has an uncanny ability to take next to no budget, and create something that will blow your mind. "Blood River" is his best film to date, and a true cinematic masterpiece. The story follows Summer(Tess Panzer) and Clark(Ian Duncan) as they travel across the desert to tell Summer's parents that she is pregnant. A car crash that follows what I would say is the most interesting piece of film ever dedicated to a tire blow out, leaves them stranded. The film is set in 1969, so it's not quite as easy as just pulling out their iPhone and calling AAA. Clark, and Summer head out on foot to the nearest town, "Blood River". As the couple arrive, not only is there a cow carcass laying at the entrance to the town to greet them, but there are various skeletal remains scattered across the grounds, and nothing much else. It's completely abandoned. Soon, we're introduced to Joseph(Andrew Howard), who is seen from the distance, appearing out of nowhere. It's made immediately obvious that there's something not right about Joe, but they are so desperate for help at this point, that they're willing to overlook his quirks. Leaving Summer behind, Joseph, and Clark head off into the desert, in an attempt to salvage gas from the crashed car, and siphon it into Joseph's car. This is basically the top of the coaster. It was great up until this point, and the ride just gets better from here.

The cinematography in this film is nothing short of amazing. Ingenious camera angles, coupled with a gorgeous backdrop, and some stunning helicopter angles makes this Mason's most visually appealing movie to date. I really felt, from start to finish that this film should have gotten a wide theatrical release. Mason had a budget of $250,000 to finish this film in a time span of 18 days, so the end result is even more stunning.

"Blood River" isn't a gorefest, but I think it will still appeal to that demographic. It's raw, gritty, and psychologically brutal. Another thing that made me happy was the fact that it doesn't spoon feed it's plot to the viewer. It definitely knows the message it wants to portray, but it leaves a lot of it up to the viewer to decipher. It's rare that a filmmaker gives the audience this kind of credit, instead of insulting our intelligence with flash cut scenes to make sure we got the subtlety. "Blood River" is not like this, it's intelligent at it's core, and it assumes that those watching it are as well.

The acting is superb across the board, but Andrew Howard in particular puts in a powerhouse performance. He's done an amazing job in past films with Mason, but this performance alone put's him at the top of my list for genre favorites. From the moment that he is introduced, until the last frame, Howard is cool as hell.

The atmosphere created is astonishing. It's gritty, and dirty, but manages to be breathtakingly beautiful at the same time. The setting is on a far grander scale than Mason's previous work, spanning across what seems to be a vast desert wasteland, but it still manages to keep a strong level of isolation.

"Blood River" is not an easy film to slap a label on. While it will definitely appeal to fans of the horror genre, fans of really solid dramatic, psychological thrillers will be in for a treat as well. It blends genres seamlessly, and is most definitely Mason's most marketable film to date. For fans of His previous work, such as "Broken" and "The Devil's Chair", don't worry, this movie was made for you as well. It's not a cookie-cutter thriller, and it demands the audiences attention. You're not going to be spoon-fed anything, you're going to have to turn your brain on for this one.

The film is currently available in Germany, has just been listed for pre-order in the UK, and if I'm not mistaken, there will be an announcement shortly about Canadian distribution as well. Unfortunately, there is currently no details available for a US release date for the flick, so if you have some pull at a studio, watch this flick, love it, and make Mason a big fat offer for distribution, you won't regret it.

Check the trailer out below, and do whatever it takes to get yourself a copy of this film. I've seen a lot of movies this year, and this has easily been my favorite so far.

9/10