Hey folks, Harry here with a review from the Travis County refugee, The Reluctant Austinite... A guy that should live in Austin, wants to live in Austin, has friends that want him to live in Austin... yet inexplicably resists the melodious chants beckoning him here to Austin. This wonderful man is so atune to the world that this weekend he knew there was a new Joel Schumacher horror film called BLOOD CREEK that was being released this weekend. How quiet is this movie being released? Go on... Search YOUTUBE for Blood Creek Trailer. Try to find it. In fact, try this one. Go to IMDB and search for Blood Creek. It doesn't come up. You'll need to look up Joel Schumacher and you'll need to click on a movie called Town Creek. 82 people in the country have rated it an 8.3. And you'll begin to understand just how dumped this movie has been. And when Quint, today in Austin, went to see this film - he bought a ticket priced $1.50... Seriously. That's opening weekend. Now... I'm not real sure who Joel Schumacher shat into's open gaping mouth... but Lionsgate really and truly cares not two cents for BLOOD CREEK or Joel Schumacher. This is just utterly bizarre. No trailers, posters... hell, there's not even an official website. Really! Well, here's The Reluctant Austinite with the review... Surprise? He compares it to Lucio Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETARY. Ya know... Joel doesn't deserve a movie to die like this. He's a quality filmmaker that has shat out some turds, but man... sometimes he's made movies that are among my favorites. Check and see if this film is in your neighborhood, your city. This film doesn't deserve this...

Hey Guys,

The Reluctant Austinite here with a look at the Nazi occult horror film, "Blood Creek" (formerly "Town Creek" and "Creek"), dumped by Lionsgate films into second run theaters in only a handful small towns across America, apparently to fulfill a theatrical release contract.

When scanning the local showtimes for local theaters this weekend in Louisville, KY, I came across the tantalizingly titled "Blood Creek" showing at the oldest operating theater in the city. The Village 8 survived the attack of the multiplexes by showing second run Hollywood features and the occasional arthouse hit. I had never even heard of this film before. There are apparently no trailers available to see. No posters. No promotion whatsoever.

Cool.

This reminded me of my early college days at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY. We had a theater there that would show ANYTHING. It might as well have been a grindhouse in the South. Direct-to-Video crap played right alongside Hollywood blockbusters. You never knew what you were going to get; Sometimes you'd get Stan Winston's "Pumpkinhead". Sometimes you'd get Andrew Stevens and George Kennedy in "The Terror Within."

Generally speaking, unless you attend a test screening of a film, you don't get to see anything these days that you don't already pretty much know everything about, so I was like a kid on Christmas morning as "Blood Creek" starting flickering across the tattered screen this afternoon. I was hoping for a set of Micronaughts and not a lump of coal.

All I knew is that this was a horror film involving Nazi occultism directed by Joel Schumacher. Now, with Schumacher, you never know if you're getting "The Lost Boys"/"Flatliners" Schumacher or the "Batman and Robin" Schumacher. The guy brings new meaning to the term "hit-or-miss", but thankfully this time it was more of the former.

The story begins with a black-and-white flashback to the 1930s in the southern United States (apparently desolate, barren Bucharest, Romania doubling for West Virginia), as a farming family receives a letter informing them that they will be monetarily compensated for housing a Nazi scientist looking for a quiet place to conduct experiments. His primary interest is in an occult runestone found in the ground beneath the barn. Needing the money, they welcome him into their home and the Hell begins.

Jump to the present. Things get a bit confusing. Young Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) has remained at home caring for his ailing father while his brother (Dominic Purcell) ran off and joined the Iraq War. Purcell apparently came home from Iraq only to disappear weeks later on a hiking/fishing trip and hasn't been seen in two years. One night during his sleep, Evan is awakened by a scraggly, Rob Zombie-looking Purcell who has escaped captivity and demands his brother ask no questions, but instead load up as many guns as possible and follow him on a mission of revenge.

This leads them to the fore-mentioned farm house, now covered in blood-painted occult symbols, and a family that hasn't aged in 70 years. It also leads them to Nazi occult practitioner, Richard Wirth, played by Michael Fassbender of "Inglorious Basterds."

This is where the grim fun finally begins, and if you've bothered sticking with this story up until this point you'll be rewarded with some grindhouse fun. Nazis have turned up everywhere over the last couple of years as the villains of choice ("Inglorious Basterds," "Valkyrie," "Dead Snow," etc.), and here Fassbender plays this particularly nasty Nazi as sort of a zombie version of the Red Skull from Captain America comic books. He's one creepy S.O.B. Using his occult powers, Wirth is able to bring back to life any victims he leaves in his wake to use as undead soldiers. This includes dogs--and horses. The best scene in the movie involves an assault on the house by a black zombie horse. Blasted by shotgun shells and missing lots of flesh, this creepy black horse continues to attack.

All of this leads to a grisly, bloody climax and the hint of a sequel that we'll never see. Apparently, there are eight other Nazi zombies hiding on farms across the heartland, waiting for the right time to bring the Third Reich back to power.

Parts of this film reminded me of Lucio Fulci's "House by the Cemetery," with the evil, zombie Nazi scientist, Dr. Freudstein, living in the basement. Perhaps that was an influence on the original screenplay. In any case, it delivered the type of exploitative horror that plays perfectly in old, decrepit movie houses and second run theaters, so if this is playing in your backyard in your own small town, I recommend you give it a chance. It's worlds better than "Halloween 2" and "The Final Destination," and you'll be one of the only geeks in the world to have seen it in a theater!

And that's what being a movie geek is all about.

If you can use this, I am the Reluctant Austinite. Always there. Rarely visible. Never forgotten.