Review: Rise: Blood Hunter

A reporter for a local newspaper is doing an investigative report on Goth kids.
When one of the kids she interviewed turns up dead, she pushes her investigation
further only to discover she pushed a “little” too hard and ends up
dead herself. But wait…she awakens in the morgue and learns that she is now a vampire and extremely pissed at the people who made her this way. It’s pretty straightforward from
there on out, with revenge as the word of the day, folks.

Once again a movie with ZERO marketing, but this time it’s for obvious reasons. I know that sounds bad, but it actually wasn’t
that horrible of a film. It had a decent premise, the acting was good and aside from being a B-movie, the visual quality was bang-on. The whole
"look and feel" had this real dark moody atmosphere happening, which made the
film better than it was, at least visually. It didn’t seem like they had much of budget for effects
though as there were virtually none. In fact, there were no transformation scenes
whatsoever and sunlight apparently just gives vampires headaches now; heck, they didn’t even have
fangs! (They used THE HUNGER style)

Aside from killing, drinking blood and casting no reflections,
this wasn’t your typical Vamp flick though. If you’re going to try and “redefine” vampire movies, you’re going to have
to make things a little cooler than this flick. Look at what 28 DAYS did for
zombie flicks, for example. That said, I respect that the filmmakers were trying something
different here, even the fact that they never used the word "vampire" throughout the
entire film was a sign toward that. But the story really needed a little more
oomph!

What really amazes me is the quality of actors
who participated in this flick and I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t just for the paycheck. Who knows, maybe the director is a really swell guy and peeps like working with him? That said, the actors were all good! Even Marilyn Manson
— who was actually entertaining without his make-up — was pretty funny! Dude, do more movies! Lucy Liu, who plays Sadie Blake, the newly turned vampire who’s seeking revenge, was good too. We even get to see her
mammaries in a couple of shots, but I wonder if it was her body or a double.

She really didn’t do much other than walk around with a lame looking crossbow shooting vamps in the
heart though. Her transition from mild mannered reporter to vampire hunter extraordinaire in the space of one scene kinda lost
its credibility for me. I did however really appreciate the opening scene with her and the call girl! Oh yeah, look out for Nick Lachey, he’s in it
too (and he’s pretty funny)! As for the rest of the cast, Micheal Chiklis was alright and Carla Gugino is always pleasant to look at. You could put
that woman in an elephant suit and she’d still be smoking hot!

Visually, the movie worked (excluding the special effects, of course); there were a few creepy elements but nothing to write home about. The action…not so
good. It felt like they were trying to merge elements from films like NEAR DARK and THE HUNGER. Unfortunately, they just got themselves a good straight to DVD flick that most people will forget in no time.

— by Tim
Goernert