Director: Emiliano Ranzani
Writer: Emiliano Ranzani, Davide Mela (Screenplay)
Starring: Makenna Guyler, Emanuele Turetta, Marta Tananyan, Alberto Sette, Salvatore Palombi, Denitza Diakovska
Plot: A creature stalks the corridors of an abandoned mansion. Two friends break in and discover that all exits have been sealed off and the creature that hunts them is growing hungry for their blood; there is no escape.
Runtime: 1 Hour 23 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Creepy Creature Feature
Story: Blood Bags starts when two students one American, Tracy (Guyler) a photography major and Petra (Tananyan) are in their final term, go in search of a new location to take the photos in, they find an abandoned mansion in the middle of the Italian city they are living in, but once in, they find themselves needing to hide from a bloodthirsty creature.
Joined by thief Alex (Turetta) who has become trapped in the mansion on his latest job, the survivors must stay ahead of this creature before becoming its latest victims.
Thoughts on Blood Bags
Characters – Tracy is an American student studying photography in Italy, she is fascinated by the older buildings and it is her decision to go in search of more work in this mansion, she doesn’t seem to care about the law, willing just walking into private property, she doesn’t seem to care about the culture, because she hasn’t learnt the language in her time there as well as making plenty of the wrong horror decisions. Alex is a thief that has become trapped in the house after his partner is taken, he has been waiting for his time to escape and with help from Tracy he could get out now. Petra is the best friend that at the university, she is considered the slutty friend who reluctantly agrees to go on the trip.
Performances – Makenna Guyler is the best of the performers in this film where she gets to shine when dealing with the creature that is coming for her, even if the character comes off arrogant for the most part. Emanuele Turetta, Marta Tananyan and Alberto Sette lead the supporting cast which is solid enough in a film that focuses more on the creature appearance than anything else.
Story – The story here follows two students and a thief that break into a mansion for various reasons, they learn that there is a creature lurking in the mansion that is looking for victims, with the people needing to figure out how to get out alive. This story has the simple message, don’t break into somebody’s house, the student’s behaviour comes off reckless, the thief well we know he isn’t going to be a good guy and the creature just lurks around waiting for stupid people to come into its house. Away from the frustrating characters, we do get to see creepy moments with the lurking around the mansion, while seeing something bigger going on in the walls. Everything unfolding is interesting to see and does have moments of suspense as we are waiting to see things unfold.
Horror – The horror comes from seeing the creature lurking in the corridors stalking his latest victims. The first-person shots are the highlights of the film.
Settings – The film takes place in the singular location being the mansion which is dark with positions where people could be hiding in the shadows.
Special Effects – The effects are used to show the creature, which is hidden for large parts of the film, which adds the fear to what it will look like.
Scene of the Movie – The first person searching from the creature.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Why hasn’t Tracy either bother or learnt any Italian in her time studying there?
Final Thoughts – This is an atmospheric suspenseful horror that uses the location to its advantage to give everything an edgy feel.
Overall: Atmospheric Horror.
