Simply A Masterpiece

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Film Perfection

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Blood Trails starts as the relationship between lovers Anne (Rebecca Palmer) & Michael (Tom Frederic) is on the rocks, in one last effort to salvage the relationship they decide to head out to Whistler Mountain Range where they have a cabin & can go mountain biking. One of the reasons why Anne & Michael's relationship is on brink is because Anne had a one night stand with a guy named Chris (Ben Price) who claimed to be a cop but is in fact a brutal & sadistic serial killer who has followed Anne & Michael out to the isolated mountain range with the intention of killing them both, can they survive as they use their mountain biking skills to try & find help as Chrissets about his work...This German production was co-written & directed by Robert Krause & one has to say that Blood Trails is a rather dull, clichéd & frustrating horror slasher come thriller that has a few positives which are lost amongst the negatives. The script is largely to blame for the films major failings, Anne as a character is really awful & she's one of those dumb horror film heroines who do the most bizarre, unnatural & stupid things. When faced with a brutal killer who has killed two people in front of her Anne decides to ignore the 4x4 Jeep & casually ride her bike away back into the woods instead of getting in the Jeep, running the killer over & heading for safety where she can find proper help. Anne blindly rides along & ends up riding off a cliff & into a river, why? Then she hits a large tree in the middle of her way which knocks her out, again why? Couldn't she like just stop & climb over the tree? Then there's the scene in which she phones for help & the operator tells her to stay where she is so they can track her mobile phone so what does she do? That's right she leaves. Brilliant. Then there's the notion that in broad daylight Anne can sit against a large wooden cross & not notice that her dead boyfriend is nailed to it for about five minutes. Right. The list goes on. Then there's Chris the killer who can just magically appear anywhere he wants & can instantly find Anne wherever she is in the mountain range. What were those two cops at the end doing there? How did Chris kill them? They had their guns pointed at him for God's sake. Why didn't either of those two forest workers not say anything? Surely if you see a scared, bloodied & upset woman you would at least ask her if she was OK, right? They don't even talk to each other & it's just a totally bizarre sequence that makes zero sense. The film takes itself extremely seriously but there's not much to it, the mountain biking aspect doesn't amount to anything & the character's are really empty & soulless, there's barely any dialogue & at nearly 90 odd minutes the film drags badly at times with seemingly endless shots of Anne walking, running or riding through the woods which become pretty tedious pretty quickly.There's not that much actual gore here, there's some blood splatter a ridiculous scene involving a slashed throat & a mutilated body is briefly seen. I actually thought the majority of Blood Trails looked terrific, there's some cool camera angles & some strong colour schemes & lighting that showcase some of the isolated wilderness to great effect & the 2:35:1 widescreen image is used to good effect & the film has an expansive feel but it's off-set by the annoying hand-held shaky camcorder moments & quick editing which gets annoying. It's debatable whether Blood Trails is a horror film or a thriller, it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be & ends up short changing us in both departments.Shot in Austria & Germany the production values are really nice & the film has some style about it but the script is poor, the pace is slow & the kills, character's & narrative are weak. There's only about five people in the entire film, a couple seem dubbed (badly too) while leading lady Rebecca Palmer puts in a decent performance with questionable material.Blood Trails is a mix of standard horror slasher & thriller which doesn't really satisfy on either account, in fact despite some nice visuals Blood Trails is pretty forgettable.

"Blood Trails" is truly a mixed bag and I honestly can't decide whether I should be harsh or mild in my user comment. On one hand, it's an admirably tense nowadays horror flick with brutal gore, lovely filming locations and identifiable main characters, but on the other hand it serves cliché after cliché as well as a banquet of stupid & illogical twists. I liked the realism of the character drawings. Anne and Michael are going through a severe relationship crises and decide to head out to their favorite holiday resort; a cabin surrounded by thick woods where they can practice their common hobby of mountain biking. But there's more. Brief flashbacks indicate that Anne had a one-night-stand with a rude cop, and when he suddenly appears on his mountain bike as well, a cruel & bloody chase through the woods begins. The first half hour of "Blood Trails" is really good, showing Anne struggling with her inner demons and the flashbacks gradually revealing what psycho her one night lover was. The film also features the extremely vile and presumably unique murder-by-bike sequence! Just in case you always wondered how you can slice someone's carotid artery using only a bike, this is your movie! Okay, so far we had amiable characters and impressive bloodshed, but unfortunately the movie then becomes pretty bad & irritating. How the deranged killer managed to exactly trace the couple, I'm still prepared to overlook, but Anne then makes so many stupid decisions that she almost deserves to die. Why didn't she at least try to wait wait for her rescuers atop the mountain, since they were just a couple of minutes away? Doesn't she realize she's the one acting like an escaped crazy woman when she meets the woodchoppers? Why stop and thoroughly study the road map when you can drive far away from the forest? The last twenty minutes are dreadfully boring, and a very shameless attempt to cash in on the success of torture-porn highlights like "Saw" and "Hostel", with the demented killer patiently explaining to Anne why exactly he's so looking forward to kill her. "Blood Trails" was shot and produced in Germany, but promoted for the international market. Director Robert Krause is a German as well, and this film is his long-feature debut after two acclaimed short movies. The make-up effects are quite impressive and definitely not intended for the eyes of squeamish, but a slightly more coherent narrative and more logical twists would still have been better.

I didn't expect much from this movie, but "Blood Trails" turned out as a very pleasant surprise. It's a gritty, unpleasant slasher movie, not timid, but effective by suspense rather than splatter. Even though the final confrontation is inevitable, the actual outcome remains unpredictable until (literally!) the last split-second.Cinematography and editing are beautiful, often relying on extreme close-ups that reflect the tunnel-vision panic of the leading character. Thereby, the movie creates a dense, believable atmosphere. The bicycle theme is an interesting variation, lending both independence and vulnerability to the heroine. The lead actress is probably the strongest asset of the movie: Rebecca Palmer is absolutely great here.Highly recommended!

Maybe with the simple plead, for your own sake, to not watch this movie! That might not be enough though, so I will depict the movies missteps one by one ...The script ... I'm pretty sure they had the "Horror clichés - All you need to make a horror movie" book at hand, while writing/shooting this. A shame they didn't have a "This is how you direct/film/produce/act in a movie" ... not a horror movie per se, just ANY movie! That's more than enough some would think to avoid this movie, but I will also share my views on some points that have been said here. "Disturbing"? Yes it is! It's so disturbing, you will feel the need to kill someone. "Camera, editing and acting create a atmosphere of dread"? More like a dreadful atmosphere I'd say ... but not in a positive way. Yes this movie is also psychological unnerving ... don't you care about your health though? "Create the emotions of the characters in your head"? Of course! I mean you have to, because there is nothing and I repeat NOTHING in the performances that will give you the feeling that these people have emotions ... or any acting talent for that matter ... but then again, I should not judge a person/actor after only one movie! Neither should you, but that doesn't change the fact, that they're awful here, to say the least! "Pacing is good in this movie"? Of what? The bicycles?! I'm through warning you, but if you still want to watch, here's at least one thing you can do to avoid boredom ... No I didn't mean sleep through it!! ... but come to think of it ... OK then two ways! The other one being, inviting a few friends over (warn them or you'll loose your friends faster than you can think ... not that thinking is necessary while watching this movie) and watch this with a few beers (or any other alcoholic refreshment you like) and laugh your butts off! It's not intentionally funny, you're supposed to be scared, I know ... a shame the director didn't know that!