Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys

Director James Cullen Bressack (Hate Crime, To Jennifer)
Starring - Zack Ward (Freddy vs. Jason), Shannen Doherty (Witchslayer Gretl), and Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future, Pirahna)
Release Date - 2014
Genre - Horror
Format - Television

Rating (out of 5):

     Director James Cullen Bressack is a director that I have to say has some balls.  His films either push the barriers or goes against the norm to give his viewers something new.  His film Hate Crime is one that left me feeling uneasy and really showed me that indie films are far from dead.  His follow up film, To Jennifer, was the first horror flick to be filmed completely on an iPhone which only shows how far he will go to make a movie.  After I watched those two flicks I followed them up with Bressack's first film for The Asylum, 13/13/13.  13/13/13 was one brutal fucking film that I thoroughly enjoyed.  Since watching those three flicks I have waited for him to hit me up with a new film and I received word several weeks back that his newest flick for The Asylum would be a made for television movie called Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys.  The movie was made for Animal Planet and looked fun as hell.  So I waited until tonight...

     The film follows a fish and wildlife expert as he travels to a small Michigan town to help with a small outbreak of lampreys.  They start to investigate the dam and quickly learn that these lampreys are anything but ordinary.  These lampreys are starving and are now looking for an alternative food source...humans.  The lampreys start to work their way through the water supply and kill everyone they can.  It is now up to the fish and wildlife expert and his team to stop the lampreys before they make it to his family and turn them into lamprey shit.
     The Asylum is a mixed bag for me.  This small film company is able to come up with some of the greatest stories ever told in cinema but somewhere between writing it down and the finished product they tend to lose their way.  The Asylum has given us so many movies with amazing story lines like Sharknado, Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies, and The Hitchhiker.  The biggest criticism that The Asylum's films get is their campiness.  I, for one, love campy horror flicks and will watch everyone I can.  The acting in this film is amazing.  A majority of the cast is well known so it is no surprise that the acting was so good.  This is something I have come to expect from Bressack and his films.  With that being said, this is actually a little unusual for an Asylum flick.  Most of their films tend to be on the bad side when it comes to acting.  The story for this one is nothing new.  In fact, this story is the same as the 1978 film Piranha.  Which is kinda funny since Christopher Lloyd had a role in this one along with the Piranha remake.  Finally, the film does have a great deal of on screen kills but the visual effects and CGI are horrible.  This is something I have come to expect from The Asylum.  Even though I expect it, it still doesn't help my movie viewing experience.  Overall, Blood Lake is a fun 'when animals attack' flick that has the blood but skips on the special effects.  Check it out, it deserves at least one watch!