BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD

The film begins "3 weeks ago" in a Romanian cave, where an archaeological dig unearths some crude drawings on the wall. Among the scribing is a strange triangular symbol.

Then we fast-forward to present-day California where we meet Tom (William Snow) and vampire hunter Carrie (Victoria Pratt). She's chained to a wall watching as Tom is beaten repeatedly by a group of vampires. They're trying to get him to spill the whereabouts of his brother, Christopher (Darrin James).

Tom insists he doesn't know where Christopher is. Carrie says she knows, but will only tell the head vampire - Pashek (Sid Haig) - to his face. The other bloodsuckers storm off to ask Pashek whether he's prepared to barter with Carrie. This gives her time enough to break out of her shackles and kill the two vamps guarding her. As she prepares Tom for their escape attempt, he asks her "who are you … really?".

Which leads into a flashback from "Yesterday Morning". Carrie introduces herself to Tom explaining (well, fibbing) that she's a doctor and she's been treating Christopher in a psychiatric ward … but he's gone missing, and she needs Tom's help to recover him. Despite the suspicions of Tom's lawyer Paul (Jack Donner), the wealthy businessman agrees to help Carrie.

But a further flashback reveals how Carrie is actually part of a team of vampire-hunting mercenaries who hunt rich bloodsuckers to slay and then sell on their belongings for a living. With funds running low, they need a wealthy vampire to prey upon - and believe either Tom or Christopher to be the one they're looking for.

Back in the present day, Pashek and his men give chase to Tom and Carrie as she continues to offer Tom piecemeal titbits of background, informing him - and us - of what's been going on.

It transpires (through more bitty flashbacks and non-linear time schemes) that vampires and hunters alike have been getting slaughtered and that Pashek's crew believe it to be the work of a fabled 12th Century vampire "ghost" legend. Or, as people keep saying melodramatically, "the devil himself". Hence the triangular symbol, which turns out to be a charm worn by vampires to hopefully protect them from the mysterious assassin.

But as the bulk of the story unfurls flashback-style, we only gradually get to piece the puzzle together, the action shifting back to the present tense occasionally to remind us that Carrie and Tom somehow hold the key to all this confusing (confused?) nonsense.

With a predictable twist finale and a degrading low budget, writer-director team Michael Roesh and Peter Scheerer's BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD never achieves what it presumably sets out to do: offer a vampiric variation on THE USUAL SUSPECTS (the Kaiser Soze-type mythical figure killing off the bad guys; the non-linear plot structure; the final scene).

But as compensation it does offer a fair bit of bargain-basement gore, some enjoyable cameos (along with Haig [who struggles to deliver his lines through ill-fitting fangs], Ken Foree turns up to positively steal the show as captured vamp Stanis) and a heroine in Pratt who comes straight out of a computer game - all pouting attitude and nipples poking through her tight vest.

Teenaged boys will love this film. It's daft and inoffensive, with enough cheesy action and corny characters to sate those waiting impatiently for another ALONE IN THE DARK sequel. But others will bemoan it's lack of focus, inability to elicit tension despite a half-credible whodunit premise to work from, and a search around a darkened house midway through the film that seriously drags on and on (much like the pace-killing police search of Seed's house in the opening 30 minutes of SEED).

More pertinently though, BROTHERHOOD is better when telling it's flashbacks. A big flaw is that whenever we cut to the present day the story seriously loses momentum. The present-tense predicament is less sinister or involving than the flashback footage, and therefore is devoid of suspense: it's impossible to care about.

At least the film is vaguely novel in that not all of the "baddies" turn out to be necessarily so, and vice versa with the "good guys".

So, the film's not too grand. Nor is the disc.

Images are reasonably sharp but for a new film the transfer is surprisingly faint, employing a presumably deliberate faded colour scheme. Motion blurring occurs only now and again, but it's enough to register as a minor concern. The film is presented uncut in anamorphic 1.78:1.

The English audio is provided in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both serve natural balance of audio channels, with loud sound effects and clear dialogue.

Extras are disappointingly scant.

A trailer runs for little over a minute and fails to capture the comic-book excesses of the film that would no doubt attract the interest of it's intended Playstation-worshipping teenaged boy audience.

Then there's a shamefully short Behind The Scenes featurette that offers just 5 minutes of on-set footage and bitesized interviews. As with the trailer, this is presented in non-anamorphic 1.78:1.

BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD overreaches in terms of storytelling and compensates with cheap thrills guaranteed to satiate fanboy conventions. If you prefer the Don Simpson "high concept" approach to describing films, the pitch for BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD could quite easily be BLOODRAYNE-meets-THE USUAL SUSPECTS.

Make of that what you will …

Review by Stuart Willis