Greetings
valued Dan's Movie Report readers, Thanks to Sarah Chang I was able
to get an early screener of Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids. The
film had it's premiere at the 2019 Urban Action Showcase, and has won
several awards. The film originated as a short film and has expanded
into a feature. Actually Sarah told me initially it was supposed to
be a pilot for a TV series. Vincent Soberano accents the comic feel
with comic page transitions during the film, telling the story
Essentially
Blood Hunters is a vampire hunting film, and clocking in at only 70
minutes, a very short one. Sarah told me that initially the film was
supposed to be 90 minutes until it was edited for a TV pilot style
length. The editing actually takes out much of the story elements and
the film moves briskly from one action scene to another.
The
story is a bit hard to follow with its truncated length, apparently
there is a group of vampire hunters in an encampment who are training
to fight the vampires. Sarah's character Gabriella is an unwilling
member of this encampment and actually wakes up disoriented, not even
realizing she is there. Normally a set up like this requires a
backstory of some length and description, yet in Blood Hunters the
audience is hurled into the story with the same malaise as the
characters in the movie.
Transitioning
to the training, Gabriella and other members of the encampment learn
to fight, though it seems that most have some action and fight
training prior. Jeff Centauri serves as the fight coordinator and
keeps the fights moving fast, with more exaggerated movements for a
comic book feel. Blood Hunters, although it has somewhat of a serious
tone never feels like a somber movie.
Vincent
Soberano as Bolo, has a important role, a last warrior guy, always
showing up to save the characters from demise. Again though many of
the fights in Blood Hunters were just too short and lacked the impact
needed for the theme.
Sarah
told me that although Mayling Ng had a small part in the film, she
was basically on set only for one day and hardly had the time needed
to do a proper fight. What should have been an epic fight between
Mayling and Sarah turned into a 30 second quick cut action, that
barely registered.
With
all of my nitpicking it seems I did not enjoy Blood Hunters: Rise of
the Hybrids, actually I liked it for the potential of what it can
become. Again I feel that this is more of a series rather than a
movie and this was just the set up and proof of concept to show
potential networks what can be created. In the movie world, if you
create a 90 minute project that is it, you get the distribution and
then the company puts out the product and moves on to the next one.
In a series, more time is taken to make sure that the story and
elements are up to the standard for an 8,10, or 13 episode season,
and that it retains the audience throughout. The short film proved
that they could do a feature, the feature hopefully will set up a
series.
Blood
Hunters would be a great fit for Amazon Prime or Netflix as an 8
episode limited series. This way all of the characters can be
properly explored and detailed back stories can be told. In the 70
minute film we never hear about where the characters came from except
in very limited flashbacks. The good thing about the short run time
is there is no wasted padding, just action.
The
lighting, sets and music are OK, I kind of wish more time was taken
on the look of the film. Many parts of the film were very dark, with
the action being rather hard to see. I am sure with a bigger budget,
either with a new feature or a series, the team will have the
opportunity to hire more prominent set decorators and cameramen.
Blood
Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids has potential, and that is the basis for
my review. When I review indie films, I compare them to other films
of the same budget and how they stack up. I mean it is unfair to
compare this film to a 50 million dollar block buster, but it does
compare favorably to films of the same budget.
Overall
Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids, is long on action leaving the
audience wanting to see more. As for a rating, I will say 7 out of
10, some issues I had are out weighed by the overall ideas behind the
film and the potential it has.
Sarah
Chang Interview:
https://action-flix.com/2019/11/07/exclusive-dans-movie-report-interview-blood-hunters-rise-of-the-hybrids-action-star-sarah-chang/
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