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[DVD Review] ‘Blood Glacier’ Features Gory Creatures, But Lacks Action

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Climate change is one of those topics that films haven’t really exploited, so when Snowpiercer hit in 2013, it was a nice change of pace. Coincidentally around the same time, Austrian director Marvin Kren’s film Blood Glacier (aka Blutgletscher) premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Both films tackle the topic of climate change in different ways. Kren went the monster movie route, which is almost always the more fun way. Plus, it’s reminded more than one person of John Carpenter’s The Thing. Turns out that this is both a good and bad thing.

Janek (Gerhard Liebmann) is stationed at the Climate Research Base in the Swiss Alps. Manned by scientists Birte (Hille Beseler), Harald (Felix Römer), Falk (Peter Knaack), and their dog named Tinni, the group is there to monitor the effects of global warming on the glaciers. When a particular melting glacier starts leaving a blood red substance in the water, the local animals start to behave strangely. In fact, the liquid is causing the wildlife to transform into genetic hybrids. The scientists find this fascinating, while Janek is far more cautious. His suspicions prove accurate, as the group starts to succumb to attacks by the hybrids. Things grow even more complicated when another group arrives to investigate the scientists’ discovery.

Like John Carpenter’s classic, the cast of Blood Glacier is a big thumbs up. While not as likeable as the group stationed up at Outpost #31, Blood Glacier does have a more diverse crew. Instead of a bunch of predominantly middle-aged guys, the cast includes both men and women of varying ages. As far as the likeability goes, Liebmann’s Janek is what you’d call a flawed hero. While the character initially starts out as your boozing loser running around in his tightie whities, he later on evolves into something more resembling a hero: A no-nonsense type who shows off some sensitivity and a level head. Adding his ex Tanja (Edita Malovcic) to the mix provides some good chemisty. The other big plus is Brigitte Kren, who plays the state minister along for the ride with the second group of scientists. Her role is another no-nonsense type that also elicits a couple of laughs.

Another big plus, once again like Carpenter’s film, is the decision to use practical creature effects, eschewing the use of CGI (insert joke about The Thing remake here). While it’s not Rob Bottin, there’s still enough gory effects and weird creatures that will pique your interest. Unfortunately, we don’t quite get a good look at some of these guys due to budget restraints, and the fact that they aren’t as visually strong as you’d hope. To compensate, the score by Stefan Will and Marco Dreckkotter attempts to drum up the tension that the creatures lack. Finally, cinematographer Moritz Schultheiss presents us with a downright beautiful landscape, which in contrast is something more hospitable than the harsh British Columbia glacier that John Carpenter and company used. Schultheiss also does a few neat focus shots that again shows just how beautiful the environment is in that part of the world.

As you can probably tell, Blood Glacier draws a lot of comparisons to The Thing. So much so that it’s to Blood Glacier‘s detriment. Unlike The Thing, there’s a real lack of dread in this film. Part of that is the previously-mentioned lack of real sustained shots of the creatures, the other is the fact that the film drags. A lot. It definitely feels longer than it’s 97 minute runtime. Every time something scary happens, it’s all too brief and becomes the equivalent of a jump scare. Also, the reliance on character development is a hindrance, since it takes away from much of the action. While this sounds strange, when you have two groups of characters that take forever to come together, with many of the characters aren’t that interesting to begin with, it’s generally not a good idea.

As much as I wanted to like Blood Glacier (and I really did), the film lacked something to make it all gel together. There were hints of the dread that were very much present in The Thing, but those were never fully realized. The creatures and the gore were all in their practical effects glory, but we never got a real extended look at the creatures to give us a real payoff. While the main characters were interesting and the acting was good, the slow pacing and focus on developing uninteresting characters lessened the impact of the action scenes. I definitely do recommend seeing Blood Glacier, as there’s definitely fun to be had, but not as much as there could have been.

Video/Audio:

Shot in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the transfer shows off some great detail. Colours are muted (a directorial choice) but accurate. There’s a bit of banding in some of the shots, with it being more noticeable in some of the darker shots. Overall, it’s a quite acceptable transfer that does it’s job.

Audio-wise, you have English 5.1 and German 5.1 tracks. Both do a great job of presenting Stefan Will and Marco Dreckkotter’s eerie score, and both take advantage of the directionals. Dialogue is clear and free of distortion, though there are a few errors in the English subtitles when compared to the English dub, but that is again, minor.

Extras:
Other than the film’s trailer, there are no other extras. In contrast, the Region 2 DVD gives us a photo gallery of the creature designs in addition to the trailer.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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