A cabin. Why did it have to be a cabin?
Today, I decided to finally try and get a jump on my Scare of the Day and not wait until the last possible second to write it. You may or may not have noticed a trend in recent days for my postings to show up about as close to the end of the day as one could possibly cut it…we’re talking in the 11 PM area…and, frankly, I’m getting tired of staying up so damned late. I went over to the big honking pile of horror DVDs that I’ve still got to choose from, and I started flipping through the options available to me, trying to figure out what the scare du jour would be. As I glanced at the descriptions on the backs of the various boxes, I noticed just how many of these flicks involve a cabin in the woods. I know it’s a staple of the horror genre for people to go out to an isolated shanty for fun and relaxation but instead meet with an untimely death, but it’s getting a little played out lately.
In the case of “Blood Trails,” I’m pleased to reveal that, although the main characters do indeed head off for a romantic escape to the mountains, the cabin where they’re staying barely comes into play. No, their problems kick in when they decide to hit the bike trails.
The back-cover blurb describes the plot of the film thusly: “Feeling guilty for having had a drunken one-night stand with a stranger, Anne proposes a romantic escape to the mountains with her boyfriend, Michael. The fresh air and scene beauty do wonders for the couple as they sail down the bike trails of the exotic mountain range…until the stranger from that night appears…killing Michael and beginning his deadly pursuit of Anne!” (Don’t blame me for the spoiler about Michael getting killed off; it’s right there on the back of the box for everyone to see, so go yell at whoever writes the text for Lionsgate’s DVD releases.)
The biking aspect of the film particularly caught my eye, if only because I can’t think of any occasion where biking has had any real part in a horror film, and it’s used to great effect on a couple of occasions. The most consistent usage occurs during Anne’s attempts to escape from her pursuer; watching her speeding down the bike trails is visually captivating, with the camera following both her tortured expression and her frantic pedaling. There’s another big bike moment, however, and I could be wrong, but I just have this feeling that someone came up with the idea for this moment first, then proceeded to write an entire film around it.
So what’s the moment…?
Okay, I haven’t been doing this a lot in my Scare of the Day write-ups, but I’m doing it today: I’m calling a spoiler alert. If you don’t want to know about the moment in question, then…well, I guess we’ll see you tomorrow.
Ha! I knew you couldn’t resist!
Dig this shit: Anne’s pursuer jumps his bike, nails Michael in the fucking throat with the bike’s chainring, then goes on to successfully land the bike and screech to a halt in the dirt.
Fig. 1 – Chainring
It’s definitely a “holy shit!” moment…but is it realistic? To find out, we went to Jim Washington, a reporter with The Virginian-Pilot reporter and an avid biker.
Admittedly, our first question to Mr. Washington was actually, “What do you call that spikey round thing that the chain wraps around?” After he provided us with the appropriate term, however, we explained about the scene which led us to ask the question in the first place, and after he stopped laughing, this was his comment on the matter:
“Given that I’ve gotten quite a few scars on my legs from chainrings over the years, in reality, I guess that if you actually could jump your bike like that and nail somebody in the throat with one, then, yeah, it probably would kill him.”
We here at Premium Hollywood say, “Close enough!”
Maybe it’s just because I’ve really seen a lot of really crappy horror movies lately, but I actually kinda liked “Blood Trails.” It’s stylishly shot, with particularly nice cinematography, so it’s easy to watch, and, unlike a lot of horror movies, most of the characters react pretty damned realistically. In fact, the only real issue I had throughout the majority of “Blood Trails” was its ending
The majority of the film left us without much of an explanation as to why Anne’s pursuer was, in fact, pursuing her. I mean, okay, so she’s cute, maybe she’s even good in bed, but after spending one night with her, he’s saying, “She belongs to me,” killing her boyfriend, and offing anyone who tries to help her escape…? It isn’t until the last 15 minutes of the film that the topic is even broached, and when it is, the mysterious stranger comes off as a cross between Hannibal Lecter and General Zaroff from “The Most Dangerous Game,” implying that he hunts random women for sport and that by surviving this long, she’s clearly among the best of her breed. Not an awful concept, but by waiting so long to introduce it, the ending feels crowded and rushed…which is a shame, because, prior to that, things were pretty damned good.
