Search - Blood Hunt on DVD

The Best of the Worst

J. Femmer | 03/30/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I picked up this DVD set because it contained 'Demon Under Glass', a movie which stars Garett Maggart of 'The Sentinel' fame. I've been a fan of cheesy, low-budget sci-fi and horror movies for years, so it wasn't really a stretch for me either way.

This set is worth the listed price basically for two of the four movies contained in the two discs: 'Demon Under Glass', and 'How To Slay A Vampire'. Both are very cheaply produced, but shine despite their limitations. In 'Demon Under Glass', what seems to begin as a typical 'let's catch the vampire killer' story, becomes an exploration of humanity and the differences between good and evil. It asks the question: what would happen if a group of scientists captured a real vampire? The topic is painted less in black and white than in shades of grey. It also takes a scientific rather than supernatural approach to vampirism, which is something that is rarely done, and even more rarely done well. 'Demon Under Glass' pulls it off, and I like that it dares to be different. The acting, particularly that of the lead actors, gets no complaints from me.

'How To Slay A Vampire', on the other hand, is a great movie because it knows how bad it is. Everything that could be bad about this movie is bad, and somehow, it works! And it makes for great comedy. It breaks the dramatic 'fourth wall' as often as possible, just for laughs. The movie is gag after hilarious gag, and it's become an instant favourite of mine. If you enjoy crude humour, this movie's for you.

To the other two movies I can't be as kind. 'Blood Slaves of the Vampire Wolf' was just bad. It was apparently filmed using nothing but a hand-held video camera, which makes the audio very hard to hear. Even when you turn the volume up, you get more white noise than dialogue. This doesn't help an already bland plot. You might get a few chuckles out of the lead actor and the horrible makeup, but as a whole, it looks like something cranked out by a high school A/V club. I watched this movie third, after 'How to slay...' and 'Demon...', and after that I couldn't really get into the fourth film, 'Sorority House Vampires From Hell'.

So like I said, 'Demon Under Glass', and 'How To Slay A Vampire' are worth the full price of the DVD set. Just ignore those other two, or watch them to form your own opinion."