Review: Blood Hunters

Directed by Tricia Lee and written by Corey Brown (Clean Break, Silent Retreat) Blood Hunters, also known as One Drop, is an intelligent and heartfelt horror thriller with even a few sci-fi elements. It stars Lara Gilchrist (Battlestar Galactica), Benjamin Arthur (Working the Engels), Torri Higginson (Stargate: Atlantis), Julian Richings (Supernatural, Man of Steel), Mark Taylor (Flashpoint) and Peter Blankenstein (The Human Centipede I-III).

After shooting up, Ellie (Gilchrist), stumbles out on to the street and blacks out. She awakens later on an operating table in a strange hospital, where – not only is she somehow now pregnant, and about to receive a caesarean – but all the medical staff have been ripped to shreds by some… thing…

While searching for a way out, Ellie finds Henry (Arthur) and the two team up to evade and escape. Bloodhunters is resolutely character driven and the chemistry between Ellie and Henry is lovely. The two really fizz and spark, and it made me want to see more of them solving mysteries and puzzles while trying not to get eviscerated by gruesome beings attracted by blood.

Things dip a bit when four more characters are suddenly introduced, nearly at once; and the film begins to feel spread too thin parts-wise, just as a lot more plot and explanation are added too. But the careful unfolding of the core truth is confident, and all the problem solving is logical and interesting, before a mind-blowing twisty reveal of a revelation completely changes things again.

The effects can be hit and miss, with the creatures working better from the shadows than when fully exposed under the hospital issue fluorescent lights. They are a cool design but are less intimidating when not skulking in the corner of a frame, or scuttling out of focus through the background. There is also lots of good gore, with the shredded staff literally spilling their guts, a sickeningly botched D.I.Y. cauterisation that needs to be saved with a spatula, and an extremely unsanitary c-section that will make you squirm.