[Blood Trails]
Plot:Bike messenger Anne never imagined the horrific events that would unfold after her one-night-stand with stranger Chris.

Cast: Rebecca R. Palmer, Ben Price, Tom Frederic, J.J. Straub, Kurt Rauscher, Johann Daiminger, Christian Heiner Wolf, Maximilian Boxrucker.

My Thoughts:Your typical stalk and slash movie, with a few twists.

Review:Robert Krause's "Blood Trails" is another foreign horror entry into the stalk and slash genre. Similar to films like "High Tension", "Blood Trails" tells the story of a bike messenger named Anne who suffers an injury, and who's bike gets smashed after an accident and so she takes a stranger named Chris up on his offer to spend the night with him and continue on her route in the morning once she's patched up. Unfortunately, their night together is anything but "innocent", which puts Anne in a precarious position considering she has a boyfriend and has to face him the next morning with what she's done. After leaving Chris, she heads off on her way, but Chris isn't very willing to let her go that easily.

"Blood Trails"is your typical stalk and slash film, which sets up a story where the main character gets herself into a bad situation by trusting the wrong person. It really falls in line with films like as I mentioned before, "High Tension" and other films such as "Captivity". There's nothing new or original about Krause's pic. Once Anne sets off on her way, so begins a game of cat and mouse where Chris slaughters Anne's boyfriend (in one of the films best sequences), and then begins pursuing Anne. Like most movies of it's ilk, "Blood Trails" presents a damzel who makes a fatal mistake, a killer with no real motive other than his sadistic enjoyment of causing pain, harm, and misery to others, and a bunch of strangers who get reluctantly dragged into the madness when Anne seeks help from them to save her from Chris.

But it is pretty hard from a viewer perspective to feel any sympathy for Anne (played by Rebecca R. Palmer), considering how she got herself into this mess. Not to mention the fact that she's not the brightest bulb in the box, which is evident in a few scenes where she takes her sweet time evading the killer and it even seems at a few points that she displays a slight willingness to try and reason with him. An act one could find confusing considering the guy just murdered the man she loves. As far as blood and gore goes, "Blood Trails" has a decent amount of it for the type of movie that it is. However, it's not bloody on the level of a "Wrong Turn", or "Sleepaway Camp", other films that are set in a woodsy atmosphere.

Speaking of which, the deep woodsy atmosphere in "Blood Trails" really gives the film a nice dark tone and mood to it. Filmed in Austria, the forests really make the movies action and chase sequences which take place mostly on bikes or on foot, really intense and fun to watch. The sceneries, along with the use of bikes in the movie to add a new dimension to the standard stalk and chase scenarios, are the only positives you'll get with "Blood Trails" however. Despite it's gritty, no nonsense overall feel and look, the film retreads alot of genre cliches and storylines that we've all seen one time too many.

One in particular, the angry madman who is stalking the pretty girl for one reason or another. Add in the fact that the madman in question pretty much has no real method to his madness, beyond what the viewer can speculate on.....and "Blood Trails" comes out of the gate as a decent viewing experience at best.

Positives:The use of a bike to escape her persuer by the lead female made the chase scenes alot more interesting than they would've normally been. Great atmosphere and sceneries.

Negatives:Too cliche and rehashes the tired stalker-victim premise in the worst way. The killer has no clear motive, a very low body count.

Overall:Worth seeing once but don't expect too much.





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