Blood Vessel (2019)

Lifeboat survivors board a German boat that's crawling with vampires during World War II.

Director:

Justin Dix

Writers:

Justin Dix, Jordan Prosser

Stars:

Nathan Phillips, Alyssa Sutherland, Robert Taylor

5 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nathan Phillips	...	Nathan Sinclair
Alyssa Sutherland	...	Jane Prescott
Robert Taylor	...	Captain Malone
Christopher Kirby	...	Lydell Jackson
Alex Cooke	...	Alexander Teplov
Mark Diaco	...	Jimmy Bigelow
John Lloyd Fillingham	...	Gerard Faraday
Troy Larkin	...	The Patriarch / Medic
Vivienne Perry	...	The Matriarch
Ruby Isobel Hall	...	Mya
Steve Young	...	Haas
Jacinta Stapleton	...	Shelly
Mackenzie Stephens	...	Lily
Dave Hughes	...	English Sailor
Richard Mueck	...	German Captain

Storyline

Somewhere in the North Atlantic, late 1945. A life raft adrift at sea, and in it, the survivors of a torpedoed hospital ship: With no food, water, or shelter, all seems lost - until an abandoned German minesweeper drifts ominously towards them, giving them one last chance at survival.

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Plot Keywords:

vampire | atlantic ocean | north atlantic | nazi | battleship | 

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

TV-MA

Did You Know?

Trivia

Scenes were filmed on the HMAS Castlemaine. A fully restored WWII Bathurst Class corvette, currently docked at Gem Pier in Williamstown.

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Goofs

The design of the German haunted ship is not anything remotely similar to what the Kriegsmarine had during WW2. The structure is typical of the Bathurst and Flower class corvettes designed by Britain.

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Connections

References Death Ship (1980)

User Reviews

I've had my love/hate relationship with this film

Blood Vessel is one of those films you really want to like, but it's constantly trying to upset you in some way.

The film looks low-budget, but the production was fine, it was immersive enough and it was obvious that the people who made this film cared.

The premise was interesting, and even though the story itself was shallow and eventless, the production design and the Romanian mythology setting were enough to keep me invested up until the anticlimactic ending.

Creature designs were great, but the Strigoi themselves were so boring and incredibly non-menacing. They were never scary or dangerous, and they barely even do anything in the film. If you're paying homage to The Thing, and if your creatures can shapeshift - why not play around that, fool the viewer, make us guess. Why make the story so predictable and lifeless.

My biggest complaint is the characters though. They are very one-dimensional and mostly either annoying or straight-up obnoxious. They introduced a suspiciously diverse set of characters (in terms of their backgrounds), but besides a couple of good line exchanges, this never really comes into play. There is no one to root for, except for the Soviet guy probably, but again, he's a one-dimensional good-guy hero with no flaws. The woman's character was never a character. Other characters just try to beat each other in being the most unlikeable, but the Faraday character always wins.

I didn't really care about the goofs, like the Germans using a British ship, the German soldier locking himself up from inside but later when the Strigoi were locked there they needed to be unlocked from the outside, whatever...

I can appreciate the production quality and care put into the film, but it makes me really sad that in a film about a group of survivors I have absolutely no one I can care about.

Details

Country:

Australia

Language:

English Romanian German

Release Date:

21 July 2020 (USA)

Also Known As:

Blood Vessel

Filming Locations:

Williamstown, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Storm Vision Entertainment, SunJive Studios, Wicked of Oz Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1