Things have been slow on here so far this month. I'm hoping to pick things up though. I may not reach ten reviews this month, but I still hope to make it respectful. I have a four day weekend coming up, so I hope to get some reviews out during that time. I had a pretty good headache going yesterday that went away at 5 in the morning today, which is why I didn't manage to get a review done yesterday. I did manage to watch a movie though. It was time for a Netflix DVD movie. I was sent two movies because Eternal Blood (2002) was listed as a short wait. Not sure why they sent it to me once it did come back since they don't always seem to do that. Anyway, I decided to go ahead and watch it first.
Carmila (Blanca Lewin) is a college student who is starting to get into the goth lifestyle. She becomes interested in a fellow student who goes by the name M (Juan Pablo Ogalde). M and his friends Elizabeth (Patricia Lopez) and Martin (Claudio Espinoza) are into a vampire role-playing game and eventually, they get Camila to join them. Her character manages to save the others in the game so they head to a party to celebrate their victory. At a nightclub, M sees a couple of guys attack another guy in the bathroom and believes the two guys are actually vampires. M also discovers that Elizabeth is friends with one of the guys, Dahmer (Carlos Borquez), and begins to think that he is trying to make his friends into vampires. Will he be able to save his friends?
Eternal Blood was co-written by Carolina García and Jorge Olguín, who also directed. This is a movie from Chile, which is kind of weird since I just watched another movie from South America not all that long ago. It has been a while since I have watched a vampire movie, so I was curious to watch this one. I was also wanting to see if the vampire lore would be changed any considering this was from Chile. For those whole love their vampire movies, the good news is that Eternal Blood isn't far off the beaten path of vampire lore...but it is slightly different. The first part of the movie is, of course. getting to know the characters. Carmila is the focus of the early part of the film as we get to know her and her budding relationship with M. Once they start to talk more and date, the focus shifts to the both of them for a while. I liked this section of the movie because it breaks things up with some action. As the characters play the role-playing game, Olguin actually shows us what their role-playing characters are doing in the game. They are vampires and the story they are playing has to do with being attacked by gun blasting priests and nuns. This happens twice, once before Carmila joins and then after. It was a good way to break up the story slightly with some action and gore. Did it need to be there? Not really, but it was still fun. Once M sees the vampires for the first time, the focus of the story shifts to him and stays there. I didn't like this section of the movie as well. Not that it was bad really, I just didn't find it as interesting most of the time. There were things that I liked about it at least. I found it confusing that a guy so into vampires would turn away from possibly becoming one. This is where the vampire lore changes slightly. A wooden stake still killed a vampire, but it didn't go through his heart. It wasn't really a stake, but close enough. I guess the reason I didn't care for the back half of the film was that they discover that vampires are real. It has been done a lot in vampire movies, so I just didn't care for it here that much. It was still interesting at times, I really liked the way the lead vampire walked at times. An alternate ending found in the extras showed that the vampires weren't real after all and I wished that had stuck with that ending instead.
The effects are actually pretty good here. They aren't always all that gory, but still well done. The vampire makeup is also pretty good, giving the various vampires a lot of teeth to bite with. I felt the stuff with the role-playing scenes ended up being the goriest effects in the film, not that there are no gory effects later on. The acting was also pretty good. I enjoyed Blanca Lewin and Juan Pablo Ogalde in the lead roles. The way the film was set up on the DVD was for English voice-overs, but I still enjoyed watching the two on screen. It seemed like they made a pretty good couple on screen. I didn't really care for the actors who played the vampires. I'm pretty sure that is the way they were directed to play the roles, but I just didn't care for it. Part of that had to do with the different styles of vampires. One was goth, one looked more old school from his clothes and another looked more punk than anything
Something that surprised me some in Eternal Blood was the choice of weapons. For the most part, the only weapon used were guns. In the role-playing and in "real life" parts of the film, guns were mostly used to kill vampires. It wasn't said why in the role-playing part of the story, but at least later on I was pretty sure the bullets were put in holy water. Overall, I rather enjoyed Eternal Blood. It was a bit on the long side, but I didn't notice that so much this time around since the story kept me into the movie. I do wish they had done some things differently, but all in all, not a bad vampire film. While I thought this was a middle of the road film, I have a feeling it is one that I would probably grow to like more as I watch it again. If you haven't given this movie a chance, or even heard of it before, give it a try sometime. It just might surprise you as much as it did me.
3 out of 5 I probably could have passed for goth but never got into it
Carmila (Blanca Lewin) is a college student who is starting to get into the goth lifestyle. She becomes interested in a fellow student who goes by the name M (Juan Pablo Ogalde). M and his friends Elizabeth (Patricia Lopez) and Martin (Claudio Espinoza) are into a vampire role-playing game and eventually, they get Camila to join them. Her character manages to save the others in the game so they head to a party to celebrate their victory. At a nightclub, M sees a couple of guys attack another guy in the bathroom and believes the two guys are actually vampires. M also discovers that Elizabeth is friends with one of the guys, Dahmer (Carlos Borquez), and begins to think that he is trying to make his friends into vampires. Will he be able to save his friends?
Eternal Blood was co-written by Carolina García and Jorge Olguín, who also directed. This is a movie from Chile, which is kind of weird since I just watched another movie from South America not all that long ago. It has been a while since I have watched a vampire movie, so I was curious to watch this one. I was also wanting to see if the vampire lore would be changed any considering this was from Chile. For those whole love their vampire movies, the good news is that Eternal Blood isn't far off the beaten path of vampire lore...but it is slightly different. The first part of the movie is, of course. getting to know the characters. Carmila is the focus of the early part of the film as we get to know her and her budding relationship with M. Once they start to talk more and date, the focus shifts to the both of them for a while. I liked this section of the movie because it breaks things up with some action. As the characters play the role-playing game, Olguin actually shows us what their role-playing characters are doing in the game. They are vampires and the story they are playing has to do with being attacked by gun blasting priests and nuns. This happens twice, once before Carmila joins and then after. It was a good way to break up the story slightly with some action and gore. Did it need to be there? Not really, but it was still fun. Once M sees the vampires for the first time, the focus of the story shifts to him and stays there. I didn't like this section of the movie as well. Not that it was bad really, I just didn't find it as interesting most of the time. There were things that I liked about it at least. I found it confusing that a guy so into vampires would turn away from possibly becoming one. This is where the vampire lore changes slightly. A wooden stake still killed a vampire, but it didn't go through his heart. It wasn't really a stake, but close enough. I guess the reason I didn't care for the back half of the film was that they discover that vampires are real. It has been done a lot in vampire movies, so I just didn't care for it here that much. It was still interesting at times, I really liked the way the lead vampire walked at times. An alternate ending found in the extras showed that the vampires weren't real after all and I wished that had stuck with that ending instead.
The effects are actually pretty good here. They aren't always all that gory, but still well done. The vampire makeup is also pretty good, giving the various vampires a lot of teeth to bite with. I felt the stuff with the role-playing scenes ended up being the goriest effects in the film, not that there are no gory effects later on. The acting was also pretty good. I enjoyed Blanca Lewin and Juan Pablo Ogalde in the lead roles. The way the film was set up on the DVD was for English voice-overs, but I still enjoyed watching the two on screen. It seemed like they made a pretty good couple on screen. I didn't really care for the actors who played the vampires. I'm pretty sure that is the way they were directed to play the roles, but I just didn't care for it. Part of that had to do with the different styles of vampires. One was goth, one looked more old school from his clothes and another looked more punk than anything
Something that surprised me some in Eternal Blood was the choice of weapons. For the most part, the only weapon used were guns. In the role-playing and in "real life" parts of the film, guns were mostly used to kill vampires. It wasn't said why in the role-playing part of the story, but at least later on I was pretty sure the bullets were put in holy water. Overall, I rather enjoyed Eternal Blood. It was a bit on the long side, but I didn't notice that so much this time around since the story kept me into the movie. I do wish they had done some things differently, but all in all, not a bad vampire film. While I thought this was a middle of the road film, I have a feeling it is one that I would probably grow to like more as I watch it again. If you haven't given this movie a chance, or even heard of it before, give it a try sometime. It just might surprise you as much as it did me.
3 out of 5 I probably could have passed for goth but never got into it
