A few days ago I finally got a chance to watch “The Walking Dead” web-series, Cold Storage. The four part background building series showcases one survivor, Chase, as he seeks shelter from attacking zombies in a seemingly abandoned storage facility. Fast forward to last night, looking at the Redbox catalogue in my store, and I stumble across Blood Shed. The plot was slightly similar to Cold Storage, or so I thought, and it looked like a zombie on the movie cover. I took it as a sign and rented the movie. Here’s my thoughts having watched it in full.
Blood Shed is written and directed by Patrick Hasson with Juan Carlos Saizarbitoria. Cast members include Gabriel De Santi, Bree Essrig (Smiley), Cherie Daly, Yasha Blackman, Jillisa Lynn, Brandon Ratcliff, Vida Guerra, and Bai Ling (The Crow, Anna and the King) as Lucy.
“A man who is down on his luck moves into a self-storage facility where he finds a group strangers who have made the place their home. However, little do they know that a deranged woman has been hunting the facility visitors in an attempt to regain the child that was stolen from her. So when the facility gets locked for the night, they find themselves trapped and hunted down, completely at the mercy of the tortured woman’s gruesome attacks.”
I guess I was extremely naïve with my movie choice, because Blood Shed has 0% in common with Cold Storage except that both projects take place within a storage facility. No zombies, and especially no intricate storytelling or worthwhile suspense. Yeah, I didn’t find a whole lot to like about this title. It felt like a check film to me – a film people do for the money and then move on without giving it too much effort or time. I’m grateful it was only a $1.07 rental on Redbox and not a full DVD purchase. I’d add it to my collection, of course, but I’d still be pissed I wasted the money.
One of the only things about Blood Shed that gave me enjoyment was Bree Essrig. I’ve seen her all over the internet on various sketch comedy channels and I thought I remembered her from Smiley, too. She’s a great actress and I’m glad to see her doing horror films every once and a while. Also, this serves as a great introduction to the career of Gabriel De Santi. He was a believable lead actor, and while this isn’t the best title to boast about, I think he’s going to find steady work in entertainment regardless. He was realistic with the material he was given. And Bai Ling… Well… Her fallen career is still super sad, so moving on! Maybe she should have played the killer. I could see her having done some really freaky shit with that role instead of the sleepy, druggy one she had.
I really wanted to enjoy this movie because, again, I was in love with the idea of a horror film being set inside a storage facility. That basic plot has so many possibilities that they’re almost endless. Blood Shed appears to have wasted all those possibilities. I don’t even understand what happened from a production standpoint. Sure, 90% of the film is well produced, but I don’t understand how there were yellow filters on the footage, audio errors, and halfway decent special effects when IMDB lists the budget as $2,000,000. Where did that $2,000,000 go? Just into renting the building for a few days? Something just doesn’t seem right here. I wonder if production met unexpected difficulties while shooting. While this title is good enough to warrant an indie distribution deal, I have a hard time believing it’ll make that budget back.
Anyway, yeah… I was bored and underwhelmed with Blood Shed. A good beginning concept, two great actors, and good production quality for the most part doesn’t equal anything that I’d recommend to horror viewers. So many missed opportunities here. I’m going to rate this one a 4.5 out of 10.
