Blood Bound
(May-Sun Films, LLC Screener DVD)
(2006)
review by Catwalk

Alex Murnau (Szele) used to be a cop, until ten years ago when his partner was charmed by the evil vampires stalking the night.  The dark seductress, Xan (Martin), took Alex’s partner, Jakob (Hermann), leading Alex into a decade-long hunt for the answers.

From the opening sequence, featuring some “hey, I’m about to die” dialogue, red-screened visuals and a “Dirty Sanchez” joke, the film keeps a gritty look and feel over its fast-paced action sequences.

Blood Bound shows Alex’s run-in with Xan before jumping back to the present time, where viewers meet Victoria the flirt, Claudia the bookworm, Lance the jockular dude and Ed the photography geek.  Claudia winds up the sweet and innocent target of the vampires, leading Alex to cross paths with the stunning youngster.

As Alex continues his investigation, the young girls, along with Lance and his meathead counterparts, are led to a rave club where the vamps intend to feast on them.  That’s when the hard cop gets to take on his old partner for the first time.

Alex’s character is directly out of the film noir flicks, without the overdubbed monologue.  The vampires are straight out of Anne Rice’s original trilogy, including their sex appeal and how they’re born.  The dialogue is much more modern, with Alex getting the best lines.

Szele portrays his character as cold and almost uncaring, without much less to lose.  Other than his family, there’s nothing that means anything to him, and his recklessness reveals exactly that.  Hermann’s Jakob is a focused and obsessed control monger, who has surpassed his mate for the reigns of control.  Kevin Swatek is greatly understated as Ed.

Soon after Claudia gets her first taste of blood, she gets her first taste of Xan, which makes for a nice topless girl-on-girl scene.  Actually, it’s a girl-on-girl-on-top-of-dead-dude scene, which makes it creepy but also still hot.

As things progress, Victoria is brought back into the heart of the beast, while several secrets are revealed about Alex and Jakob that make things messy.  The way things are wrapped up makes for another turn in the process that the general viewer won’t have foreseen.

The fight choreography is pretty well done, but the action scenes suffer the way most low-budget films do.  The benefit to Blood Bound is that the acting and script provide the ability to overlook the low-budget shortcomings most of the time.  The effects are above-average with the blood more believable then a few others, and the fangs as convincing as most vamp flicks.

When the film reaches its climax, it pits friend against former friend, partner against partner, family against family.  It’s at that point that Alex’s dialogue reaches its best, as well as the pace and soundtrack of the film.  The tortured cop’s revenge is delivered in the way every viewer will hope from frame one.

The final shot is well worth the wait, wrapping things up well and still providing a launching point for a follow-up effort.

The DVD boasts more extras than anyone would expect, with separate commentary tracks by the Director, Director of Photography, Writer and Post Production Team.  There is also a very funny blooper reel, trailers, deleted scenes and a featurette on the making of the film. 

Interested viewers can check out more on the film at www.bloodboundthemovie.com