Look, I'm all for a crazy premise ('Teeth', 'It Follows', etc.), and on paper, this movie sounds hilariously nuts. Given the right writing, decent dialogue, and some character cohesion, it can work. This movie had none of those. It would've been far better off as a horror-comedy. There is - seriously - not. One. Bit. Of intentional humor in the whole entire film. I don't think the characters even giggled to themselves once.
This whole thing's just a mess. I don't understand what the movie title had to do with anything in the movie, I don't understand why a samurai ghost is hunting country folk in rural America, I don't understand what moms "visions"contributed to the film, i don't understand the girlfriend's connection to it all, and the list goes on.
Things pick up slightly (only slightly) in the second act when the ghost attacks the house, but then quickly slogs back to mediocrity once the attack is over. The first act is boring and slow, and the finale is just bizarre. There's odd WWII overlays parsed in for some reason. And then all of a sudden, the ghost can turn people to stone. Or dust. I don't know. And light random childhood photos on fire with their hands. Again, it's all a mess.
Pros:
Cons:
I'm not one to turn movies off mid-film. I rarely do it, and I usually watch on the treadmill anyways, so it's not like I have somewhere else to be most of the time. This one tempted me to turn it off. Pass 'Blood Beat' right on by, you won't regret it.
This whole thing's just a mess. I don't understand what the movie title had to do with anything in the movie, I don't understand why a samurai ghost is hunting country folk in rural America, I don't understand what moms "visions"contributed to the film, i don't understand the girlfriend's connection to it all, and the list goes on.
Things pick up slightly (only slightly) in the second act when the ghost attacks the house, but then quickly slogs back to mediocrity once the attack is over. The first act is boring and slow, and the finale is just bizarre. There's odd WWII overlays parsed in for some reason. And then all of a sudden, the ghost can turn people to stone. Or dust. I don't know. And light random childhood photos on fire with their hands. Again, it's all a mess.
Pros:
- the music is about the only thing in this movie that could possibly earn a passing grade (the licensed classical pieces, not the original score), but even then, it would fit more effectively in a better movie. C+, and that's being generous
- the acting is comedically bad
Cons:
- everything else
I'm not one to turn movies off mid-film. I rarely do it, and I usually watch on the treadmill anyways, so it's not like I have somewhere else to be most of the time. This one tempted me to turn it off. Pass 'Blood Beat' right on by, you won't regret it.