Blood River (2009)

Blood River: Directed by Adam Mason. With Andrew Howard, Tess Panzer, Ian Duncan, Sarah Essex. A psychological thriller, which explores the destruction of a young couple’s seemingly perfect marriage.

“A couple driving through the desert crashes their car due to a blowout and are left stranded. They decide to head for a nearby town called Blood Creek to search for help and meet a mysterious stranger who calls himself Joseph.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film is directed by Adam Mason, a man whose greatest skill is creating great looking films for very little money, and the film does indeed look great. Unfortunately, it lacks the creative touch that was very apparent in his previous work The Devilu0026#39;s Chair (which I gave a very high score). Indeed, the film feels uninspired and watching it is a bit like going through the motions.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a shame, because there is a glimpse of something great hiding within the religious angle that the film takes. I wish that this had been explored in more depth, but instead this is covered by clichés that border on parody.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBy far, the worst part of Blood Creek is the characterization of the two leads; the man is aggressive and loud, the woman is passive and dripping with tears. This is the case from the get-go and only gets worse as the film goes on. I assume that this is somewhat intentional, but it crosses the line between believable human flaws and annoying caricature.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe best part is the performance of Andrew Howard as the mysterious traveler Joseph. While he does have the best material to work with, it is pretty clear that he is the one with the acting chops and he pretty much carries the film single-handedly.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDespite the good craftsmanship (cinematography and sound is great), I would recommend watching something else. While Blood Creek is not offensively bad, it presents a handful of moments of annoyance and leaves no lasting impression.”