katrinaolson.ca - Blood Mountain (CUFF 2017)

Posted on Monday, April 17, 2017 at 03:00 PM

Blood Mountain (CUFF 2017)

Review by Katrina Olson-Mottahed x CalgaryMovies.com

A KO Review by Emily Mody

Blood Mountain is a feature length horror film directed by Jason Wan Lim. The film follows a family man, Colt Carson (played by Stafford Perry) who gets pulled into a mountain biking expedition with his brother, Paul (played by Joe Perry), and his brother’s coworker, Chris (played by Joshua Murdoch). As the more experienced mountain bikers, Colt and Paul, push further up the trail and ahead of Chris. After some time spent enjoying the trails, Chris goes missing and the three men are thrust headlong into a dangerous game that forces them to fight for their survival.

Unfortunately Blood Mountain is not for me. I always enjoy a classic horror film and the premise of this film seemed potentially interesting. I was disappointed, however, by how formulaic the storyline became. Even though there were definitely interesting character elements, which I won’t mention here for fear of spoiling crucial plot elements, I still felt that for the majority of the film I was just going through the motions of watching three men getting chased around a mountain. I was never pulled into the story in a way that could allow me to become truly frightened.

I did feel that the acting was very strong for the leads of the film and I was actually pleasantly surprised to see such impressive work from lesser-known actors. I think that the main area that Blood Mountain lacked was in the writing. I found the ending very confusing from a critical storyline perspective. I think the average film viewer would really struggle with the ending so this was very concerning to me.

When I finished Blood Mountain I was reminded of the film, Wrong Turn directed by Rob Schmidt. There are many similarities between the two films. In plot, for example, both horror films revolve around characters that are being pursued through a mountainous landscape and for one reason or another have no means of escape. The fear of an unknown landscape is prevalent throughout the entirety of both films. It seems that at any moment someone could appear around a bend in the trail. Wrong Turn has a lot more characters involved in the film and if I remember correctly, is much less character driven then Blood Mountain. You may enjoy Blood Mountain if you are looking for a horror film with a character driven story that focuses on a family dynamic. You may also enjoy Blood Mountain if you do not mind watching a film that will potentially leave with more questions then it will answers.

Blood Mountain runs a total of 87 minutes. If you are a sensitive viewer it is important to note that this film contains violence, language, and gore. Blood Mountain’s world premiere will be screened as a part of the 14th Calgary Underground Film Festival 2017. For the purposes of the festival they are rating it 18+ for admittance. It will be screening on April 21st, 2017 at 9:45pm at the Globe Cinema.

Calgary Showtimes: Blood Mountain >