Blood Lake Review

Distributor: VCA Edition Details: Standard DVD Movie Specs: Genres: Feature Film, Horror Also known as: Blood Lake XXX Run Time: 78 minutes Rated: XXX Release Year: 2006 Director: Christopher Gregory (as C.L. Gregory) Written by: Erin Gilmer Cast: C.J. Summers, David Lash (as Bobby Banger), India Summer, Dick Chibbles, Sandy Simmers, David Law (as Johnny Depth), Tyler Houston, Dan Holmes Release Specs: Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: none Video: Full Frame, 1.33:1 Video Format: NTSC Format: DVD Regional Code (for DVD/Blu-ray): 0 (All) Number of discs: 2

Blood Lake, an attempt at a horror and adult movie hybrid, is the work of Christopher Gregory and the end result is a mess, what caused it to end up in the shape it is currently in is unknown. An inexperienced movie maker? Studio interference and recuts? A combination of the two? Any of these are possibilities.

Christopher Gregory, seems to have only directed one movie that has been released. He apparently directed The Vampire Diaries, which was shot a couple of years prior and seems to have disappeared after a lawsuit from Ball State University in Indiana where the adult movie was shot, and was apparently working on Kentucky Fried Horror Show, which was going to be a mainstream horror film but seemed to have disappeared after a lawsuit from Kentucky Fried Chicken. There are also claims of a sequel to Blood Lake in the works as well, which has never materialized.

Cast announcements during the post-production of the movie made the movie sound like a fun horror/adult feature movie, with decent plotted portions to go along with the sex scenes. The announcement of an R-rated version coming out as well as the XXX-version, further increased the sound that this was going to be a developed adult feature movie. With enough non-sex plotted footage to release an R rated version, that had to bode well for the movie.

Then comes the shock that the run time for the movie is only 78 minutes with sex scenes. That is when doubt for the movie starts to creep in but... the movie starts with promising looking opening credits with an old photo collage. They are presented in non-anamorphic widescreen, wait no, cast credits show up in the pseudo-black matting. The feature stays in the non-anamorphic widescreen presenting rather quickly our story. A group of friends head out to some cabins in the woods where they come across the blood book, which tells the story of Preacher Jacob (Dan Holmes), who lead his flock to mass suicide in 1896 in the general area of the cabins. Max (Dick Chibbles) reads an incarnation from the book, which brings the spirit of Preacher Jacob back for blood.

Calling the plot of the movie is an Evil Dead rip-off would be giving too much credit to the plot. All put together, the plotted portions of the movie might make up a total of 15 minutes of the run time, much of which consists of dialog which really doesn't further the story one bit. It is probably worth noting that I can't find any proof of an R-rated version of this movie coming out. Leaving the question of whether there was at one point more plot, which VCA cut for the release or whether this was all there ever was.

The horror aspects of the movie aren't very horrific. The death scenes aren't overly realistic and feature a lack of blood or gore. They are randomly thrown into the movie to get the cast offed before the end. The same goes for the sex scenes. Each one is forced into the movie to ensure that everyone gets a coupling, but there is no real attempt to even make them fit with the story. The scenes are rather generic, mostly looking like going through the actions over trying to create inventive sex scenes.

The movie was shot in Kentucky and while some of the outdoor locations look nice, the cabin interior (which seems to have been used for all the cabin scenes) along with the exterior don't fit with the plot at all. The blood book was supposed to have been found in one of the cabins. The shown cabin looks nice and new, and not at all like it would have been hiding an over hundred year old book unless someone hid it there last week.

Given that the movie took the time of shooting in the Kentucky woods might lead toward the belief that VCA scrubbed the majority of the plot and horror portions of the movie. However, then portions of the movie go from the non-anamorphic widescreen into full screen, leading toward the belief that the movie was just made by an inept director. Whichever the cause, the movie is an utter failure at being a horror movie or even plotted movie for that matter. In addition, the lackluster sex scenes makes the movie a failure at being adult entertainment as well. Thankfully that promised sequel, The Foundation: Blood Lake 2, never surfaced.

VCA has done a poor job with the release of Blood Lake. The movie is presented in the full screen aspect ratio; most of the movie is presented in a non-anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with portions of it in the full screen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The picture is decent for indoor and day footage and grainy and poor for night footage. Blood Lake is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. The track offers poor quality audio, which may have been due to the way the final cut of the movie was created. The dialog is well below the level of the music. To top it off, the disc shows a phone sex advert first, which has no way of being skipped over.

The only extra that VCA has included on this release is a picture gallery. The only other extra included at all is a second disc which contains VCA's compilation all sex release Wild & Wicked Wenches. This is a movie screaming for extras. Deleted scenes, there must be some from what the cast has said on the internet about the movie. A feature with Christopher Gregory explaining what he was trying to do. Something to explain what caused this mess to be created and released.

Blood Lake has nothing to offer any viewers. It is an utter failure at being a horror movie and it is an utter failure at being an adult entertainment movie. I can't recommend this movie to anyone. The lack of extras and problem with the transfer make this release an easy pass.

Past Reviews Interviews