VARSITY BLOOD

VARSITY BLOOD focuses on a group of cheerleaders at a local college whose main pastime is supporting their school basketball team, The Warriors. New to the fold is out-of-towner Hannah (Lexi Giovagnoli), who's just moved there with her mother Nancy (Debbie Rochon) following the death of her father a year earlier

Hannah is part of the cheerleading team, friends with the other girls and even has a boyfriend in the form of arrogant jock Blaine (Blair Jackson). Furthermore, she has a not-so-secret admirer in wet fart Jeff (Wesley Scott). So, for the new kid she's not doing too bad.

However, Halloween is approaching and things start to sour when the latest Warrior game that Hannah's girls are cheering is introduced by college principal Graves (Jeff Runnels). He bitterly reminds the kids that, a year earlier, his daughter Jenny died in drink-related circumstances.

Around the same time, someone takes to slipping on the Warriors team mascot garb - a mask and cloak of a war-painted Indian - and murdering one of the girls in the school after hours.

Oblivious to this, the others go about their daily grind as normal, planning a party at a remote farmhouse for their upcoming Halloween festivities.

Come the evening in question, the basketball lads gather the beers and race up to the farm in their cars, the girls giggling excitedly at their sides. Before long, the usual mixture of drinking, fucking and squabbling has begun.

But they are not alone. The mascot-masked killer is lurking in the nearby woods, ready to pounce again ... and again.

Who could be behind the killings? Embittered Graves? Ben (Tyler Mann), Hannah's new stepbrother and former boyfriend of Jenny? What about wacky nerd Herman (Vincent Giovagnoli), whose official role is actually as the team mascot?

Presuming he's not the guilty party himself, perhaps Sheriff Jones (Fabian Watkins) can get his arse up to the farm in time to save a few kids and help Hannah fathom who's behind the slashing and what's motivating them to do so...

Generic doesn't even start to cover this one.

VARSITY BLOOD (the title itself a play on the 1999 film VARSITY BLUES - this movie was actually shot on the same campus as that one, in Texas) is the very definition of a slasher-by-numbers. The teenaged characters are all stock tropes of the sub-genre: jocks, sluts, nerds, virgins etc.

There's not one who has anything original to say or do. Likewise, events unfurl in clockwork manner: the red herrings, the jump-scares, the flashbacks, the twist ending ... all extremely familiar indeed. Crikey, even the gory death scenes provoke a keen sense of déjà vu for anyone who's sat through the early FRIDAY THE 13TH films. Bare breasts at one kill point are, of course, a given.

In fairness, writer-director Jake Helgren's film is very well-shot, benefits from affable performances and has the good fortune of possessing an agreeable soundtrack. And accusing a slasher flick of lacking in originality is, I suppose, tantamount to moaning when a torture-porn film gets bloody.

The problem with VARSITY BLOOD's absence of invention, however, is that each and every line, let alone every scene, is predictable to the point of robbing the film of all suspense. Especially, as the film is so slow to get going; following the pre-credits opening murder scene, we have to wait another 40 minutes for anyone else to bite the bullet. And the entire film is only 83 minutes long!

It's not that VARSITY BLOOD is terrible. But I almost wish it was. At least then I'd remember it for being so. As it stands, it's simply mediocre and as a consequence I'm already starting to forget it.

Image Entertainment's region 2 DVD presents the film uncut and in its original 1.78:1 ratio. The picture is 16x9 enhanced. Strong colours, natural flesh tones and solid blacks complement a reliable level of detail and clean image to ensure this transfer can be recommended as an above average presentation.

English audio comes in choice of 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both are okay. The latter has good channel separation: it's clear and consistent, offering problem-free but unremarkable playback.

A static main menu page leads into a static scene selection menu allowing access to the film via 6 chapters.

There are no bonus features related to the main feature. In fact, all we get are a trio of trailers that play as the disc loads up: HUNTING THE LEGEND, CAMP DREAD and THE INVOKING.

VARSITY BLOOD looks good and has many technical points of merit. But it's by-the-numbers stuff and ultimately will not be remembered as a result.

Review by Stuart Willis