A love of words brought this Fear with Beer movie and brew together: Blood Punch Monk's Blood. Don't just read it, say it out loud: Blood Punch Monk's Blood. Satisfying, right?
Blood Punch is a creative low budget horror, thriller ... comedy? from 2014. I've been trying out a new movie streaming service called Shudder dedicated to the horror genre, and Blood Punch is a featured title; it's also streaming through Amazon Movies.
You can't help but draw a loose comparison to Groundhog Day, at least on the twisted surface. Three young criminal meth addicts, holed up in an off-season hunting lodge, become stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over and over. Part of the repeating, however, involves killing one of the trio, over and over, in varying levels of gore. A dead body in the world of Blood Punch, however, doesn't disappear, so even though the person returns the next day, you end up with a healthy stack of dead bodies. The movie kicks off with our hero Milton, played by New Zealand actor Milo Cawthorne, sick in a bathroom and watching a pre-recorded video message of himself providing a cautionary tale and filling in the backstory.
Maybe I'm finding pattern recognition where none exists, but in retrospect, this movie and beer seemed destined for each other. Truth is I didn't directly click with this flick -- while full of blood and violence, this is not a gritty movie, and perhaps I was expecting it to be. The playful font of the movie name should have tipped me off to the tone, but I was having a slow day. Our three meth-heads are all fresh, attractive and healthy-looking, with good teeth and hair sans an expected worn-out druggie look. The violence is bloody but cartoon-ish gore. These characters don't behave like real people, but over-the-top versions of real people, unnaturally cool and composed.
I simply didn't immediately adjust to this style of camp and humor.
I had a similar disorientation with 21st Amendment Brewery's Monk's Blood. To be sure, Monk's Blood is a strange tasting beer, one I didn't love at first sip. The bold, unusual flavors seemed too over-the-top, and, like the movie, I wasn't sure how to approach the experience. Monk's Blood is a Belgian-style dark, but right up front you get surprising flavors: vanilla, cinnamon, and a dank, dark kind of oak. There's another flavor I didn't recognize, but after reading the description, totally tasted -- dried figs! There were dried figs in my beer!
Like Blood Punch, Monk's Blood wasn't wimpy. This beer, with an 8.3% content, jumped right in my face and let me know that it meant business and was doing things in its own unapologetic way. Still, those desert-related flavors added a wholesome sweetness that contrasted with the dark attitude, which again reminded me of Blood Punch. While watching this movie, I felt like I was watching really sweet people getting a chance to play really bad people ... and completely loving it.
And that's the core of both movie and beer: there is a playfulness behind their upfront darkness. Both movie and beer were quite good, but you couldn't come in taking either too seriously. They each did what they did very well and each were created with creativity and inspiration, but these were not traditional ventures. Like a toddler dropping a f-bomb, sure it's swearing, but darn, it's cute.
For me, I eventually got into both beer and movie and really, really liked them both. I wish I could have "got it" earlier on, but come on, it's a 1 hour 44 minute movie that took me about 55 minutes to adjust to the water, so we're not talking hours, days or years. Had it been a different day, I'm sure I would have responded differently.
As for that hidden sweetness, at least for the movie, there's probably something to that. The movie was directed by Madellaine Paxson, a writer for various children's ventures including kid show LoliRock and Power Rangers R.P.M., while all three lead characters all had roles in Power Rangers R.P.M. and/or Power Rangers Samurai. Eddie Guzelian, the writer for Blood Punch, had written for The Tigger Movie and Lilo and Stitch 2. Don't let any of that scare you away from Blood Punch. Consider these connections to children's programming something like dried figs in a beer, not necessarily the usual thing, but an ingredient making some really unique flavors.
