Bloodrunners

Director - Dan Lantz (Ninja Babes from Space, Bloodlust Zombies)
Starring - Ice-T (Surviving the Game, New Jack City), Michael McFadden (Gotham, Oliver Twisted), and Chris James Boylan (Killers)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Crime/Horror
Tagline - "In a time of corruption, evil hides in plain sight"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     Finally, another vampire movie.  A few weeks back I brought you a review for the vampire film Monsters Among Men.  It was a solid film but had room for improvement.  Truth of the matter is, I rarely get vampire movies in to review.  Most of the time they are slashers, torture porn, or zombie flicks.  I don't mind those sub-genres.  Hell, I love em but I rarely get a vampire movie in to review.  I grew up with films like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Children of the Night, My Best Friend is a Vampire, Once Bitten, and so on so I really enjoy vampire flicks.  A few weeks ago I got the press release for the period piece horror film Bloodrunners starring Ice-T.  I had to see it so I requested a review copy.  Thank you Justin for hooking me up!
     The film takes place in a small town during prohibition.  The local police has an agreement with most of the shiners in the area but a new club owner moves into the area and starts selling hooch.  They pay the club owner a visit and receive their cut of the money rather easily.  When they press the club's bus boy they learn that he is expecting a truck of hooch soon.  That night they set up a road block but something terrible happens.  When the trucks arrive they kill all the police involved with the exception of one.  The survivor investigates the club owner more and learns that he is a vampire.  He must now team up with a young man in love, a religious nut, and some prostitutes from the local brothel to stop the creatures of the night.

     I was looking forward to this one.  When I was little Ice-T was in an action thriller that freaked me out.  The film, Surviving the Game, is one that I don't hear a lot of people talk about and the ones that do mention it comment about how bad it is.  This blows my mind because I really enjoyed that film.  I was excited to see Ice-T take on the vampire sub-genre but I was very let down by the overall film.  The acting in this one is good.  Some of the cast over does it.  They have a hard time finding that fine line between seeming natural or coming off as a stage production.  With that being said, Ice-T was in the film a lot more than I expected and did a great job.  His character was predictable and generic but he was still able to make it fun.  The story for this one has so much potential.  A vampire period piece set against the backdrop of prohibition is bloody fantastic.  Sadly, the film moves painfully slow with very little story development scattered throughout.  I can handle slow builds, like The VVitch, but this film lacks atmosphere and tension.  Finally, the film has buckets of blood.  The blood looks good and the practical effects look even better but they are overshadowed by how bad the visual effects look.  I just don't mean bad, I mean the worst I have seen in any quality of movie.  What were they thinking?  Overall, Bloodrunners was a let down.  It has a great cast and a solid story but the crew was unable to bring forth anything worth watching.  Skip it.