14th October, 2008 Login • Register
Search This Site
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) DVD Review
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) DVD Credits:
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) Directed by:
Sebastian Gutierrez
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) Written by:
Sebastian Gutierrez
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) Cast:
Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis, Carla Gugino, James D'Arcy
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
1
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) DVD Release Date:
8th October 2007
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD
Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) Synopsis:

"Rise" is a supernatural thriller in which a reporter (Liu) wakes up in a morgue to discover she is no longer among the living. She vows revenge against the cult responsible for putting her there and hunts them down one by one. Chiklis plays 'Rawlins,' a haunted police detective whose daughter is killed by the same cult and seeks answers for her gruesome death.

Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) DVD Review:

BLOOD AND MILK

Both involve a little sucking. And that pretty much sums up Rise: Blood Hunter, an otherwise decent film that sucks just a little. Sebastian Gutierrez makes his sophomore offering as a director with this stylish vampire thriller. Penned by Gutierrez himself, Rise is sort of Interview with the Vampire meets Blade. Sort of. We follow the exploits of once reporter Sadie Hawkins, played by Lucy Liu, now turned vampire, who is hunting down and killing the coven of vamps responsible for her turning. Aiding her in her search, or hindering her if you want to look at it like that, is Michael Chiklis as Clyde Rawlins, the down and out Detective out to find his daughter Tricia’s murderer. The majority of the cast does little to distinguish itself, and Margo Harshman’s newbie vampire Tricia Rawlins at one point nearly murders a scene, but for the most part they manage not to screw things up too bad for Liu and Chiklis.
Overall Gutierrez’s script is interesting if somewhat shallow. We are efficiently introduced to both Sadie, and the main crux of the story. Unfortunately, we are not so efficiently given the back story on Bishop and the coven. It’s clear that the film maker was trying to establish a larger world beyond the film without bogging us down in explication, unfortunately it left this reviewer wanting a little bit more. Sadie Hawkins is definitely likeable, and Lucy Liu is always endearing but there are still a few WTF moments. Veteran undercover reporter that she is, Sadie makes some serious rookie reporter mistakes. Like when you show up to a friend’s house, and it’s obviously been tossed, you don’t just plop your purse onto the floor, especially when it’s got your pepper spray in it. There’s also the fact that when you are trying to kill someone, and you screw up, and they are about to kill you, begging for your life just seems a little silly.
Another somewhat confusing aspect was Gutierrez’s vampire mythology. If you want to pick and choose from the host of vampiric traits more power to ya. But you still want to establish a frame of reference for your audience as to what they can do, and you want to do that fairly quickly. That saves your audience another of those WTF moments when your bad ass vamp heroine gets knocked out by a redneck outside a bar. Then there’s the whole daylight thing. At one point in the film Hawkins, post turning, is wandering around out in the sun and her biggest problem is that it’s bothering her eyes. Again WTF? Overall these issues tend to make it difficult to stay in the story and maintain that willing suspension of disbelief. Finally we come to the whole reason for the existence of Gutierrez’s vamps: Sex and Murder. The film relentlessly pushes this theme. From the gang rape and murder of Sadie Hawkins, to the brief HLA (hot lesbian action) between Sadie and a hooker, and in just about every moment of feeding, it’s there, staring at you. Frankly I saw more boobs in this movie than I’ve seen since there were two Jean Claude Van Dammes in Double Impact. Although that is not to say that the nudity was gratuitous by any means. On the contrary, it is very appropriate to the story at each moment. Particularly given the aforementioned theme.
Despite all of this, the film really shines in several areas. The Production Design and locations are sufficiently moody. The lighting definitely works. And there are real moments of tension throughout the piece. It’s gratifying to see a relatively sophisticated and intelligent film in a genre that is being drowned in witless gore extravaganzas. Moving from moment to moment to the rhythm of a well crafted score, Rise works, and works pretty well. And of course, even covered in blood Liu manages to be cute. Which then leads us to our discussion of that most beloved of horror tenets: the gore.
Overall the gore isn’t bad and is pretty well done. All of the various cuts and scars look good, and the make-up fx guys even went so far as to vary the color of the blood between humans and vamps, which, I thought, was a nice touch. There’s one moment though that just looks horrible. The newbie vamp Sadie, hiding out in a homeless shelter smothers an old man, then sans fangs, must rip open the flesh on his arm to feed. Yeah, not so good there. But otherwise the gore works well, and is in just the right amount.
So after all this reading you’re like: “gee Joe, you really hate this movie”. But, actually, I had a pretty good time watching it. These issues notwithstanding, I think Rise is a better than average thriller in a very crowded and lackluster genre. The majority of the dialogue was believable, and occasionally smirk inducing. Liu and Chiklis turn in solid performances and the overall plot works well. It’s definitely worth a rental and if you’re a vampire aficionado I’d say pick this one up. But it won’t be for the extras.
The DVD itself leaves a little something to be desired. It’s 1.85:1 and in Dolby Digital 5.1 which isn’t bad. Mastered in High Def and all that. So the specs are there technically, but it falls short in the special features department. There are four featurettes that average about 3-5 minutes in length which basically amount to EPK blurbs. Sure there are some extremely minor tidbits of interest, but overall so much more could have been done with them. For trailer fans there is at least the theatrical trailer as well as some other decent horror trailers. But ultimately, the biggest disappointment was the lack of director’s commentary. A film like this, with a writer-director really needs to have a commentary and this reviewer finds it appalling that there isn’t one. Instead we have a storyboard to screen comparison. WTF? Who really cares about that crap? I mean what’s the point? Sure all of us film students out there understand the significance and might glance at it, but the mainstream audience couldn’t care less I’m sure. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong. Send your angry emails to Ryan Izay. Lol (Just kidding Ryan).
So in the end, your renting or buying this DVD for the movie, and I’ll reiterate: For all it’s flaws, its worth a viewing.
The Breakdown:

*All values out of 5*
Film:
Overall: 3.2
Story: 3
Cinematography: 3.5
Prod. Design: 3.5
Acting: 3
Gore: 3
Amount: 3
Quality: 3

DVD:
Overall:2.5
Specs. 3.5
Extras:1.5

Our Rating: Extras Rating: User Rating:  Log in to rate this DVD

Rise: Blood Hunter (2006) DVD review written by: Joe Burns

Content Management System provided by P J Thomson - Freelance Web Design - PHP/MySQL Development