In a small town, a girl gets attacked by something near a gas station. The station attendant saves her life and explains her new situation to her, leaving out crucial details. Writer/director Tim Reis takes the usual werewolf tropes and applies them to an amphibious being which turns things on their heads a bit. His film is semi-serious and has plenty fun in store for fans of slightly over the top horror. His characters are fairly typical but this does not take away from the fun. This is not a film made to make you think a ton or to be philosophical, it’s made for entertainment and it does that very well. The films premise is fairly simple but it works and the characters involved work in an odd group of people forced together.
The lead is stuck in her family house with a stepfather that clearly hates her and a spoiled brat of a little brother. Her mother is not helping and after her best friend disappears, she only has the gas station attendant that she can trust. This group of people, with a police investigator, tries to figure out what is going on and survive in some cases. This simple premise with just a few characters keeps things moving along at a good pace and keeps the attention on the lead who is at risk of changing at any time. In the lead of Victoria Miller, actress Mary Malloy shows that she is not afraid to get dirty and she goes for it. Her performance is strong and works before and after the transformation when the performer may or may not be her as there is a stilt trainer involved in the film and Josh Adam Gould being listing as the Frogmonster which may be her post transformation or the one in the opening.
In the part of the nameless attendant, Vikras Adam plays the man who knows more than he tells quite well, giving his character a mystery and a feeling that he might know what he’s doing or be an insane scientist. This duality adds a bit more mystery to the film as he searches for a solution and may not be telling everything to Victoria. The rest of the cast does well with their part with Brian Troxell coming off rather disagreeable and grating as the stepfather which may have been the point of his interpretation but it is more annoying than anything. Thankfully, his scenes do still work within the film. The crew behind the special effects does a fantastic job with the transformation of Victoria into the beast and with the beast itself.
The effects are clearly a place where a lot of the budget went and careful selection of the team behind it happened as they look great and very well done. The team knew how to create this beast and how to make it look right while a bit threatening with a couple humorous touches. The other effects in the lab and on victims also look good and properly gross.
Bad Blood: The Movie is a fun, entertaining beast movie with a great transformation sequence, properly gooey and bloody effects, and good performances. It has potential as future midnight movie and should be seen with friends getting rowdy with the film.
Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival had its first edition on October 6th through October 9th, 2016.