Varsity Blood is written and directed by Jake Helgren. He previously wrote and produced another slasher flick, Bloody Homecoming, which features a somewhat similar plot. Cast members within this title include scream queen Debbie Rochon, Lexi Giovagnoli, Wesley Scott, Natalie Peyton, Elyse Bigler (Bigfoot Wars), Blair Jackson, Melody Herron, Jesse Ferraro (Humans vs. Zombies), Payton Wood, Elle Lamont (“From Dusk Til Dawn”), Chris Hlozek (Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies), and Fabian Watkins.
“A pack of small town jocks and cheerleaders with a dark secret head out to a remote farmhouse for a raucous Halloween pasture party, only to find themselves up for slaughter by someone dressed as their high school mascot, an Indian warrior wielding a lethal fighting ax and a bow and arrow.” – IMDB
First and foremost, I want to say that Varsity Blood brings absolutely nothing new to the table in terms of content. It’s very much a throw away horror film like Lovers Lane (2000) and The Pool (2001). Kind of just a horror film made for the sake of making a horror film. However, I actually kind of enjoyed the other two flicks, so maybe in time I’ll be able to appreciate Varsity Blood. For now, though, it was kind of a snooze fest that lost me half way before the farm house party and wasn’t really able to catch me again when all the bloodshed happened. I think too much time was spent flushing out the characters’ backstories and subplots. I remember thinking, “Damn, only one person has died so far and I’m like 45 minutes into the movie.” If you’re not going to have a groundbreaking piece of cinema on your hands, the audience doesn’t need to know every detail about throw away characters’ lives.
The acting was… I’ll just say, thank god scream queen Debbie Rochon was in this. Her acting was by far the best and she even looked much younger, if not radiant here. Her presence alone kicked up the performance pool by a few notches. The lead actress, Lexi Giovagnoli, was also pretty decent, but she’s got a ways to go from being great. The same can be said for the lead actor, Wesley Scott. I actually enjoyed the character of Linda (played by Kiarra Hogan) and I wish she wasn’t killed off so early. Speaking of which, I would have switched around a lot of characters when it came to the death scenes. I feel that all the unlikable characters and below average actors hung around until the end, and all the likable characters and decent actors were killed off too soon. I think this adjustment would have improved the quality of the whole movie.
One thing I did like about this movie – the chase scenes – comes with a criticism like everything else here. Varsity Blood has a lot of chase scenes, some that are the perfect length. The only problem is people are falling, throwing up, and doing stupid things the whole time. One character stops in front of a tree while the killer is trying to chase her down with a car. When she realize she can’t outrun the car, she just stands in front of the tree and lets herself get hit. Really? I mean…really? Any person with half a brain would have waited until the car was close enough and then jumped out of the tree so the killer hit it and went through the windshield. Another girl decides that crawling through a fence-like chicken coop while the killer strolls by was a good idea, too. I love chase scenes. They’re one of the staples of a good slasher flick, but you gotta do ’em right! The death scenes, while quick, were one of the other few things I liked about the movie. Very bloody and lots of axe to the head shots.
I could continue with this review, but it would be unfair. Any compliment I could pay Varsity Blood, I’d also have a slight criticism. Except I do like the official poster and trailer! As I mentioned in my first paragraph, this is basically a throw away film. I feel bad saying so since I know it was recently released on DVD and I don’t want to do anything to hurt sales. But I have to be honest – I’m not a fan. I’m going to give it a 5 out of 10.
