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Bloodless AKA Vampires
R2 - United Kingdom - 101 Films Review written by and copyright: Samuel Scott (8th November 2015). |
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The Film
 ***This is an A/V and Extras review only. For reviews on the movie from various critics, we recommend visiting HERE.*** It's dark. It's disturbing. Responding to an advert looking for people to take part in a 30-day medical trial, 5 young couples arrive at an old castle in an unknown location. They are told that they cannot have any contact with the outside world or they ll forfeit their £20,000 prize money. Confident that they can win, the couples agree to the terms. However, shortly after their arrival, unexplainable events begin to occur within the castle. At first, the challengers dismiss it as a test of their nerves by the organisers but things soon take a sinister turn and the group is forced to fight for their survival...
Video
Independent British distributor 101 Films continue to support independent low budget filmmakers with this release of small British horror film "Vampires" (original title "Bloodless"). The film is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the transfer is anamorphic. Unfortunately, the budget restraints of production are quite obvious. One of the first things that strikes you about this transfer is the lack of colour. The filmmakers have clearly gone for a drained look to help increase the atmosphere of the creepy building, and this does work rather well. However, it would have been nice to see more vividity in the occasional daytime external scene. Due to this drained look, skin tones and the like do look intentionally unnatural in some scenes and the disc handles this style choice to a reasonably good degree. Blacks aren't as deep as one would expect them to be, and details against black items of clothing in particular are rather poor at times. In some of the more conventional scenes, details are improved but still not the expected level for such a new feature. At around the eleven minute mark, I noticed some posterisation and this does pop up on a couple of occasions (another notable appearance at 27:38). It is quite obvious as it is usually on a largish scale against the dull worn walls of the building. There are no issues with damage as such, but there are a couple of instances of poor compression which are nothing more than a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things. The film is uncut and runs 83:18 PAL.
Audio
101 Films provide a single audio track for this release; English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. To get straight to the point, I have no real complaints with this track, but it doesn't set the world alight either and the film definitely suffers from not having a 5.1 track as there are plenty of opportunities where the surrounds could be utilised. As it is, separation in the stereo track is a little underwhelming, yet despite the limitations there is some good depth to the track. Dialogue is reasonably clear at all times (the odd mumbled line may be intentional), the score is atmospheric, and the effects sound fine. As to be expected for such a new feature there are no issues such as drop outs, scratches, crackles, or background hiss. No subtitle options are included.
Extras
We start off the extras with a featurette entitled "The Making of Vampires" (15:20). As much as the film isn't much cop, this is a well produced featurette with solid narration that gives some nice tidbits of information, whether it be on the location, the make-up effects, or how producer Steve O'Brien became the director of photography at the last minute due to Melissa Byers unfortunately having to leave after a family tragedy. The featurette contains some good raw footage from behind the scenes and is generally an interesting look at various aspects of the production that is of interest even if you didn't enjoy the film. Next up, we have a good selection of cast and crew interviews (27:48). Unfortunately, they all play as one, and you cannot select people individually. The interviews include footage of the various cast members from the final product and whilst the cast interviews are quite basic, the crew interviews are a little more involved. Overall the interviews give brief character descriptions and very little else, and is a bit of a back-slapping affair.
Overall
For every low budget horror film that finds an audience, there are a hundred others that don't. Unfortunately this is one of the hundred.
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