Horror Movie Review: Blood Punch (2014)

Blood Punch is another Horror movie that suffered the fate of slipping under the radar, relatively unnoticed.  Do you ever watch a film and just think, “How did I not hear about this before”? It released in 2013 at Austin Film Festival and won the Dark Matters Audience Award.

The film follows Milton, a recovering Meth addict. He’s checked himself into rehab in an attempt to get clean. During a group discussion, his eyes meet with the beautiful Skylar. Milton is instantly attracted to her. It’s evident that Skylar has ulterior motives that do not involve drug rehabilitation. She easily convinces Milton to help her break out of rehab so they can travel to a cabin in the woods. Her plan is have him make a large quantity of meth that they will then sell for a huge amount of cash. It sounds simple enough to Milton and he’ll get to spend more time with Skylar, he agrees. Things become slightly more complicated when he discovers that Skylar has a psychotic boyfriend named Russell.

Russell exhibits highly unstable behaviour but Milton persists, for Skylar. While at the cabin, they all take drugs. It turns out that Russell had spiked the drugs, this leads to vivid hallucinations. Milton discovers that the cabin is situated upon land that has been forever psychically tainted by a massive and bloody Native American war.

Still, gets to work on cooking the meth. Russell confronts Milton about his affair with Skylar and things get heated. He pulls a gun on Milton but he explains that the meth cannot be completed without his formula. Russell somehow has knowledge of the formula, much to Milton’s shock. He shoots Milton only for him to wake up on the couch in the cabin.

At first, Milton believes it to be some kind of twisted dream. However, it soon becomes apparent that Milton, Skylar and Russell are in something of a time loop. As soon as the day ends, it begins again as if nothing had happened. Skylar & Milton attempt to work together to figure out some way to escape the loop. They attempt everything you can think of as well as murdering Russell in several hilarious ways. No matter what they do, they are trapped.

They spend almost 5 years in the loop before they come to a realisation. Only one can be left standing if they ever wish to leave.

Blood Punch is a little bit like the horror movie equivalent of Groundhog Day. However, saying that it simply rips off that premise is a huge injustice. It’s handled extremely well and manages to keep you intrigued from start to finish.

Also, it doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are a number of moments that had me laughing. Most of these involved Russell and the many ways he is killed.

I liked the characters and thought they worked off of each really well. Unfortunately, you don’t really get to know that much about them. The first time you meet Milton is in rehab, you don’t get much else. I thought the acting was fine but something about it felt off to me. The lack of emotion is obviously a representation of Milton and Skylar’s twisted relationship. Still, it could have been better. However, Ari Boyland as Russell is highly entertaining throughout.

Blood Punch has a fairly simple premise. It could have taken that and created a straight forward movie. Instead, it is crafted with care. There are a bunch of unforeseeable twists that genuinely surprised me. I had no idea where it was going but in a good way.

Blood Punch definitely deserves more recognition. It is much more expansive than other time loop movies. The fact that it is a horror film makes it that much more enjoyable. The ending is initially bittersweet but it had one last twist to deliver. Basically, Blood Punch is awesome.