I never saw the original "Bloodthirst" so when I popped "Bloodthirst 2: Revenge of the Chupacabras" (2005) into my DVD player I was assuming I was getting something along the made-for-TV quality of 2005's "Chupacabra Terror" (aka "Chupacabra: Dark Seas"), but, no, "Bloodthirst 2" is so ultra-poverty-row that it makes "Chupacabra Terror" seem like a major blockbuster. To compare exact figures, "Chupacabra Terror" cost $1.2 million to make while "Bloodthirst 2" cost only $15 thousand. Needless to say, calling "Bloodthirst 2" a low-budget film gives low-budget films a bad name.
The non-existent budget can be seen in everything -- poor lighting, poor acting, poor props, poor "score," poor cgi monster, etc. For example, the "score" sounds like someone plucking away at his brother's Casio keyboard in the next room and the creature will make you bust out laughing, especially when you see it walking.
The story starts out extremely convoluted but gets slightly interesting if you can adjust to the no-budget format and stay with the story past the first half hour (remember, I said "slightly interesting"). There's some shady goings-on at a castle-like asylum, a kidnapped girl & her inept kidnappers, a priest helping a couple of Hispanics who think they saw the devil, a detective & others looking for the young lass, campers getting killed, an abandoned mine and a mysterious shed & cabin in the woods. All these story facets were shot outside of Sacramento, CA, including Ione and El Dorado & Placer counties.
Although quality-wise "Bloodthirst 2" is on the level of "Plan 9" and even worse than "Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon," I'm giving it 3.5/10 Stars for a handful of positives:
- It IS so bad it's entertaining. My wife & I had some good laughs watching it. - Megan Welch plays the kidnapped girl and she's a quality cutie; she even has a decent bikini scene at the beach. - There's a cool metal song played during the end credits, "Mortal Despair" by Dan Mumm's band (at the time) Mortal Despair. Although the production is of demo quality the song itself is actually good, that is, if you're into this type of music; the lyrics reflect a young man's grief after the death of his beloved. It's kind of moving, really. - I enjoyed the Big Valley, CA, locations. - The film is curious and makes one wonder who or why anyone would come up with such a tangled, bizarre plot and actually think it's good enough to make into a movie. And then you wonder about the "actors" and how the flick ever got a decent DVD release. It's bewildering. - There's a 10-minute "Making Of" documentary that's entertaining and helps answer some questions.
The runtime is 88 minutes.
FINAL SAY: I don't recommend this movie unless the positives noted above trip your trigger. Surprisingly, I'm glad I watched it and own it, but -- other than the reasons cited -- it's hard to express why, except perhaps because it's interesting to observe the work of an amateur filmmaker -- direction, sequencing, choice of locations, props, etc.
GRADE: D