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U.S.A.
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2007
Directed
by David Buchert
Starring
Natalie
Hart
Roger
Horn
Tiffany Shepis
Color
| 75
Minutes | Not Rated
Format: DVD (R0 - NTSC)
Troma Entertainment
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Review
by
Doug Red
Film:6
:
DVD:7
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| Blood
Oath
is in the tradition of micro-budget shockers created by a group
of young aspiring filmmakers who gamely put together a movie with
few resources... Just moxie, found sets, and whatever funds they
can scrape together. |
|
Four
friends are having a party out in the woods, enjoying themselves
and nature during a weekend camping trip. Hardbody sweetheart
Lisa (Natalie Hart) and her straight-laced beau Charlie (Roger
Horn), along with saucy redheaded southerner Beverly (Katie Vaughan)
and her prankster boyfriend Kevin (Jamie Reynolds), decide to
spend a day chasing down a local legend — the story of the cursed
Krupp family. Legends say that the young Krupps made a deal with
supernatural forces in the form of a wild woman of the forest
in order to have a child. To ensure fertility, the couple sealed
their pact using a phial-like object into which both husband and
wife dropped some of their own blood; the object was then buried
in the ground in front of an old tree. Soon the Krupps were blessed
with twins, but when the wild woman of the woods asked them to
sacrifice one of the children to fulfill their part of the blood
oath, the young family tried to escape. The dark powers of the
forest have a long reach, however, and the Krupp parents were
killed in a car accident on their way out of town. The children
both survived. One daughter was found alive at the scene, and
the other was taken away by the so-called wild woman of the woods.
After hearing of this local legend from Charlie as the band of
friends enjoy themselves around a campfire, the group decides
to set out on a hike the next day to find the legendary ruins
of the Krupp homestead. On the way they begin to feel like they
are being watched, but they chalk that up to just being in the
deep woods legend-tripping. Eventually, they find out just how
much of the legend is true and how much of it is a lie... |
|
David
Buchert's Blood Oath largely succeeds
in its goal of providing scares and atmosphere on a shoestring
budget. To start off with, there are extended cameos by two favorite
indy scream queens of today, bubble-bootied beauty Tiffany Shepis
and pneumatically tart Tina Krause. Even though each actress only
has a single scene, they both apply their considerable talents
(but tragically no nudity) in fleshing out basic characters, giving
some much needed audience identification and ultimately horror
fandom marketability (considering that the rest of the cast is
mostly made up of talented unknowns). Shepis portrays a man-hungry,
boyfriend-stealing tramp; Krause plays an impossibly daffy photographer
in search of a class assignment in the haunted woods. The rest
of the cast of unknowns acquit themselves very well, creating
more than just the hipster cookie-cutter victims who exist purely
as repositories for the sharp instruments of killers, the kinds
of twentysomethings that overpopulate bigger budget films and
which have no relation to real life. You'll want the protagonists
of Blood Oath to escape their predicament
intact, particularly lovely Hart and Vaughan. After casting the
film intelligently, Buchert & Co. then set about putting in some
varied horror fan references to previous cult horror hits, with
Sleepaway Camp even getting a direct
verbal nod in the script. Scream,
Blair Witch Project and Texas
Chain Saw Massacre also factor into the film visually,
with the haunted Krupp homestead resembling the abode of Leatherface,
and a few other surprises. Blood Oath
also has some remarkably effective mis-en-scene, offering
originally weird moments in framing, sound, and editing, such
as effective use of creepy baby doll sounds, the "legend of the
Krupp family" flashback sequence, and a freaky reveal towards
the end that will have most audiences squirming with revulsion.
The kills are generally well thought out and inventive for most
of the running time. However, the biggest hurdle the film has
to overcome is the first pre-credit kill scene. For whatever reason,
the editing of this single kill sequence is quite off, so much
so it pulls the audience out of the film for a moment. It's almost
as if that one moment of the film was just roughly edited into
place, and nobody thought to actually edit the sequence correctly.
The rest of the film's quality more than makes up for this brief
misstep, but it's a mystery as to why it wasn't tightened up more. |
|
The
story of Blood Oath is compelling,
and the dark supernatural births in the Krupp family could be
a legitimate deep-fried southern folk tale turned urban legend.
There are a few plot twists that come out of nowhere about two-thirds
of the way in, but by then the characters have established themselves
and it fits the oral tradition of the campfire tale for which
this film is an excellent cinematic example. |
|
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| Troma's
2011 release brings Blood Oath to
DVD in a letterboxed 1:78:1 transfer with Dolby Digital Stereo
audio. For a film of such bargain basement origins it looks and
sounds surprisingly good. |
|
Extras
include the usual informative commentary track by the director
and an epic 40 minute behind-the-scenes featurette detailing the
making of Blood Oath. This treasure
trove of information is compelling viewing for independent filmmakers
looking to see how some others took the challenge of making a
film, including shots of what went wrong and the obstacles that
had to be overcome. Some favorite revelations: Katie Vaughan also
doubled as Tiffany Shepis' 'stunt belly' during a scene, the original
effects guys dropped out and they had to get new people, the nude
scenes in the film (Tina Krause's fellow students wait for her
return by stripping off their tops and conversing) were shot in
the location of a kid's day camp, the original set for the Krupp
house was destroyed with most of the film props in it, making
a sequel difficult, and the crew had fun with the name of the
film on various scene slates (Blood Oaf, Blood Elf,
etc). For a film documentary, you really get a sense of the struggle
to get Blood Oath made and the camaraderie
of the people involved. Also included is a short about the special
effects (where you get to see the main monster and a few of the
deaths being prepared for), a storyboard slideshow with dialog
included (which is almost like those fashionable motion comics),
and the Blood Oath trailer. This
being a Troma release, there are a number of "Tromatic"
extras on hand, including a few installments of Make Your Own
Damn Movie, a riff against the BP Oil spill, and some Troma
trailers. Lloyd Kaufman and Debbie Rochon also provide a hilarious
— and sincere — video lead-in to Blood Oath.
5/16/11
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