Brotherhood of Blood

Plot synopsis:
Claustrophobic thriller about a team of vampire hunters who infiltrate a nest of undead to rescue one of their own.
Carrie Rieger tugs at her bonds. The young vampire huntress has to free herself. Guarded by vampires, chained in a dark cellar by the mighty vampire King Pashek, her time is running out. She knows an even greater threat than the vampires is coming relentlessly closer. Everything will be decided tonight.
Carrie has crossed a dangerous trail: Back from a faraway journey, a man slowly transforms into a vampire. And he transforms further - into something that even the vampires fear; the mighty vampire demon Vlad Kossel.
The vampire sovereigns killed Kossel many hundreds of years ago, but now he has seemingly returned. In his new body, he will take revenge and destroy everything in his way. There is only one hunter who can stop him...

Tags: flashback

Review:
Subtlety is a very important thing in any good horror movie.
Not only does subtlety reduce the ridiculous amount of "in-your-face-quality" that today's horror movies seem to love, which effectively makes then just plain old action movies, subtlety shows that a film has respect for its audience.
In "Brotherhood of Blood" the directors cleverly combines the 'vampire' genre and the 'mystery thrillers' sub-genre in an art-house context.
The curious thing about "Brotherhood of Blood" is that this film is the most realistic and human vampire film that I have seen.
It is so much better to watch the movie all the way through the first time, plot unknown, to watch how it unfolds.
That's what makes the film noir movies so great for watching and re watching.
Where most movies can get boring after a viewing or two, I've seen many of my film noir movies quite a large number of times.The beauty of Brotherhood Of Blood is the cast involved - Every one of these actors does a god job.
Some may find that unnerving, but it is very well written.I recommend this film for anyone who likes mysteries or intelligent horror stories.
Besides its plot, Brotherhood has good performances to keep you entertained and some great dialogs.
You don't see many low budget movies these days that make you feel that way..
You are just thrown into the plot head-on and then given little chance to breathe as the movie takes you deep into a story so rich with characters.
For a budget of $500K the talents of Victoria Pratt, Jason Connery and Coolio can be shown off to advantage by keeping down the number of locations and sets, minimising expensive FX and spending time (the least expensive component before the cameras start rolling) on sorting out the structure, characterisation and story of your script.
Shoot direct on High Definition video, with rented quality lenses and then edit with a feel for rhythm and pace and you'll (maybe) produce something as good as this horror-flick.
Instead I got to see an exciting movie featuring outstanding acting and a plot twist that caught me by surprise.Typically movies of this kind rely upon blood, gore or left-field plot twists to get the job done.
"Brotherhood of Blood" relies on an excellent script, good direction and wonderful acting from people who might not necessarily be household names.
Look at this cast- Sid Haig, Kenn Foree, Victoria Pratt, Jason Connery.
Meanwhile, the vampires themselves are hunting the same brother to prevent the resurrection of "Vlad Bossei" a super-vampire who lived in the 12th century.There film is definitely nonlinear as we jump from today, where Carrie (Pratt) is a captive of Pashek (Haig) and Fork (Wes Ramsey); to yesterday, where they are trying to get information out of Stanis (Ken Foree - Rob Zombie's Halloween, The Devil's Rejects); to last week to get the full story.Victoria Pratt ("Mutant X", Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep) is the leader of the vampire hunters, and does a very good job in this film.
Seriously, it seems that anyone with a bottle of catsup and a pair of wax fangs thinks he can make a vampire movie, which is why most of them are so bad.This movie was better than most in terms of plot and storytelling.
Meanwhile, the vampires themselves are hunting the same brother to prevent the resurrection of "Vlad Bossei" a super-vampire who lived in the 12th century.There are all sorts of twists, turns, double-takes, and some of them don't really make sense, but the movie is fun for what it is, and the actors actually look like they are trying..
Well, at least the young directors showed precocious talent: *brotherhood of blood* cost a mere $100,000 to make but looks like it cost 5-times that figure.
I was happy to see Victoria Pratt in this movie, because I think the is a good, if not merely decent, actress with actual emotion behind her lines, which is lacking in a lot of horror.
good cast, bad movie.
Sid Haig is pretty creepy and Ken Foree is fun, but the movie really blows.
Charles Band made a bunch of excellent movies, but this resembles one of his quickie made turkeys.I have met Sid Haig and Ken Foree at several horror conventions and they are lots of fun and nice guys.
You ever watch a movie with horrible dialogue and horrible acting, hoping at some point it would get better?
But since the first reviews I encountered were hugely positive and since I'm still a big fan of former horror icons Sid Haig and Ken Foree, I decided to give the rental copy a chance anyway.
"Brotherhood of Blood" is definitely better than first anticipated but, in the end, nonetheless remains a disappointing and unmemorable film.
The script is definitely better written and more original than most nowadays B-movies, but the main problem actually becomes that it is too ambitious (on the verge of pretentious, actually) and wannabe convoluted for its own good.There are certainly some ingenious elements to find here.
Carrie Rieger works for a professional agency of vampire hunters and, at the moment, she's occupied with the protection of a wealthy businessman named Thomas, whose brother is likely to become the reincarnation of the most feared vampire of all times; Vlad Kossei.
Three weeks ago, Thomas' brother got infected with Vlad's blood in Romania, last night Carrie and her team were torturing a random vampire (Ken Foree) in order to obtain information and today they're all trapped and imprisoned in the vampires' underground lair.
Read stuff like "Art house Horror" or "Brotherhood of Blood is a good example of counter-cinematic art." Oh, man...I laughed so hard when I read that!!
Make up: Over sized fangs that made it difficult for the "actors" to talk.In Brotherhood of Blood, from the opening scene-- to the final frame, was nothing more than a grossly amateurish, poorly written, acted, directed, edited, miked, shot movie.
Next, we'll see him in a high school version of "Cats."Everyone involved in making this movie should chip in, take out a billboard on Sunset Blvd and apologize to anyone who took the time to actually watch Brotherhood--it's that bad!!
Once again, the budget was blown on good DVD cover art and not the movie itself.
I must admit upfront that seeing that sometime cohorts of Uwe Boll (Micheal Roesch & Peter Scheerer) wrote and directed this film did fill me with some dread, but I also resigned myself to watching all of the films in the "Ghost House Underground" set, so with great reluctance & extremely low expectations I popped it into the DVD player.
It turns out that lowering my expectations was the right move on my part as the film was dreadfully bad and I started to even feel sorry for Sid Haig and Ken Foree, two horror film icons who truly deserve better.
More of a character piece than a vampire tale, but all the characters are bland and lifeless (no pun intended) Maybe it's time someone put a stake in the vampire sub-genre as it's done.My Grade: DDVD Extras: a short 5 minute behind the scenes featurette; interviews with actors Victoria Pratt, Sid Haig, & Ken Foree; storyboard to screen comparison; trailer for this movie; and trailers for "Dance of the Dead", "No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker", "the Substitute", "Dark Floors", "Trackman" "Room 205", & "the last House in the Woods".
With a cast including the likes of horror vets Foree, Haig, Bond-son and bangin' hard body Pratt, I so wanted to like this movie yet honestly, I fell asleep three times in the first hour and I started watching it at 8 in the evening.
Here's another memorable and interesting vampire movie, but one that left a little bit a bad taste in my mouth - because it was so low budget.
Horror movies seem to bring out the best in the FX department.BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD had the potential of being a great film, but it's a mishmash of interesting vampire or goth concepts with an art house touch.
A great ensemble cast of actors: Sid Haig, Ken Foree, Jason Connery, William Snow and especially Victoria Pratt and Wes Ramsey who make a great young couple - he vampire, she the hunter.
The best scene in the movie is when they pull the teeth of the captured vampire.
-. First of all don't be fooled by the Foree or sid Haig being in this movie as they must have just wanted some paychecks real bad.
I don't know if it was the writer, the director, or producer but it ended up coming together as a second rate attempt at a Vampire film.
On my constant search of occult joys (like for example,Subject Two) in the world of low-budget horror cinema,I find very frequently very bad movies (like Dark Corners and Five Across the Eyes);unfortunately,I am very accustomed to that.But I think the most painful thing is to find a movie with great potential which was destroyed by some element of its production;it can be on a narrative,technical or creative level.Brotherhood of Blood is one of that movies which could have been much better if it was not for a fatal weakness : the disastrous direction.The main concept from the screenplay is good and pretty original.But,that good potential is completely destroyed because of Michael Roesch's and Peter Scheerer's extremely bad direction.As screenwriters,they showed some ingenious things on the screenplay which would have made of this an interesting movie.But their work as directors completely ruins this film making it very mediocre when it could have been good.Their directing is bad because of the badly illuminated cinematography,horribly structured scenes,uncomfortable close-ups and specially,because of the horrendous edition with continuity problems and with sudden changes of rhythm and tone.That lack of a global vision and of a correct structure of scenes and the weakness of keeping the flow of the narrative totally destroy this film,making bad what could have been a good film with a better directing.By the way,during the final credits of the movie,the first person listed on the section "special thanks" is "director" Uwe Boll.Speechless...I suppose that even the slight influence of this pathetic director has the power of ruining other movies like this one.The bad directing is also seen on the performances,which result very amateur,in spite of having some veterans of fantastic cinema.I do not wanna attack the actors...they have made solid works on other occasions (for example,Sid Haig,Victoria Pratt and Ken Foree).I think the fault is from Roesch and Scheerer,who clearly need a lesson on how to direct a movie.The only positive elements are on the screenplay,specially on the main concept,which is very good.But the pathetic direction ruins that good potential.Brotherhood of Blood is one of that movies which make me angry,because they represent wasted potential.I think that with another director/s,the result would have been a solid film.But,like this,I do not recommend Brotherhood of Blood because it is a very mediocre horror film.I think this movie will be useful to show film students how NOT to direct a movie..
Just now I watched this film, & I think my bad luck isn't going to go away anytime soon.
Like, d'uh.The film starred unknown actors & actresses, and even though Victoria Pratt acted convincingly, the others failed miserably.
"Brotherhood of Blood" is an excellent example of why films deserve to be written about, rather than simply awarded a star or number, since it is, at times, both appalling and incredibly effective and even disturbing.I thought this was a very good movie.
The actors in this movie worked good together.
the lead Carrie, the old vampire (Sid Haig), the captured vampire (Ken Foree), and the young Vampire all seem like real people with complex personalities and back stories.
As a team of vampire hunters tries to find the hideout of a deadly clan, a member joins forces with a kidnapped victim's brother to rescue him from their clutches before he's turned into one of them in order to lead them to a sacred talisman their leader desires.Frankly, this one should've been far better than it was, but instead is reduced to a humongous pile of plot confusion and far too much time spent on story lines that have either nothing to do with the main plot or are featured for no reason other than to build up the cast of genre veterans.
There's some good gore in here, though, with the deaths being inflicted coming off as pretty gruesome and the action scenes are far more entertaining than they should be, with stand-outs including a frenetic shootout through the main lair as well as the ambush on the hunter's hideout that results in the trapping of one of the main vampires and the subsequent torture for information that's far more brutal than it should be in such an effort, but it's a little confusing and far too much built-for-star-power than it should be.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language..
Roesch & Scheerer's Brotherhood of Blood is quite a claustrophobic little vampire film, mostly taking place within the congested confines of rooms within a warehouse as vampire Pashek(Sid Haig) fears his powerful brother Vlad Kossei(..for whom he burnt alive many years ago for this vampire's blood-thirst was so intense he wiped out villages in short order)has been resurrected by an artist perhaps having found his remains in a church in Transylvania.
A small vampire hunting unit, led by Keaton(Jason Connery)and Carrie(Victoria Pratt, another in the long line of female bad-asses, with a very athletic figure, often grimacing, dead-serious demeanor, with no fear at all as danger presents itself)find themselves almost nearly wiped out by Vlad Kossei it appears.
Cult star Ken Foree has a lucrative role as vampire Stanis who is tortured by Keaton and Carrie in acknowledging who Kossei is and what he's up to.Very low budget, and given some extra mythology, but overall still follows many of the same vampire customs(..vampire bite turns you into one of them, sunlight burns their flesh when introduced, they crave human blood for survival).
Pashek admits that vampires and humans came together in unison to stop Vlad Kossei and that this would be the only way to stop him once again.
I found the confinements of the action in small, singular locations rather tiring..the film is very dialogue driven, with Haig given ample screen time devoted to telling us about his people's history, specifically about Kossei and his reign of terror.
Low budget Vampire horror that tries to be clever..
The only way to stop this great evil is for Vampires & humans to work together but can an alliance be formed in time before the ancient prophecy is fulfilled?Written & directed by Michael Roesch & Peter Scheerer this low budget indie Vampire film tries to be a clever horror reworking of the seminal classic The Usual Suspects (1995) with it's interchanging time lines & the mysterious ultra bad guy Vlad Kossei whose identity & the way it is revealed is very similar to The Usual Suspects, in fact I'm not trying to boast or anything but I guessed the twist ending fairly early on & all in all thought it was quite predictable.
The script which takes itself very seriously is passable for what it is (not much), it tries to big the mysterious Vlad Kossei character up so when his identity is revealed it's meant to have some great meaning but did anyone else think that during the final shot of Vlad Kossei walking towards the camera he looked like a dead ringer for Arnold Schwarzenegger from The Terminator (1984)?
The character's are forgettable, no-one is that likable or particularly stands out & why didn't that Vampire played by Ken Foree not tell Carrie & her people what he knew straight away rather than wait, get tortured & let the big bad Vlad Kossei complete his plan?Obviously filmed on a low budget Brotherhood of Blood doesn't look the best with cheap sets, locations & effects work.
I guess the makers wanted to rely on it's story but having ripped the whole tone & feel from The Usual Suspects without being anywhere near as good I found it hard to like Brotherhood of Blood.Filmed in Los Angeles in California on a supposed budget of about $500,000 Brotherhood of Blood is pretty rough round the edges & looks low budget.
The acting is OK, Jason Connery happens to be the son of former James Bond actor Sean Connery while genre regulars Sid Haig & Ken Foree have small roles as Vampires.Brotherhood of Blood is a low budget indie Vampire horror film that tries to be clever but anyone with any intelligence or has already seen The usual Suspects will not be impressed by it's twist.
All though the story has ambition and tries hard, this movie proves to be unsuccessful due to its limit of budget and some campy performances.
Vampires Pashek (Sid Haig) and Stanis (Ken Foree) know that the ultimate evil is about to be reborn.
She must unite with the vampires to stop this ultimate evil, before its too late.The greatest thing about this film is the reunion between Haig and Foree, two of horror movie's most fantastic talents.
And we'll have it start towards the end and jump all over the timeline" "Sounds good, but why is it going to jump timelines?" "Cuz I like Quentin Tarantino and he does it all the time" "Cool.
Seriously they could have just blown half their money on a digital camera and it would have looked better.Brotherhood of Blood supports a decent cast of B actors you'll recognize from The Lost World, Cleopatra 2525, and Mutant X.
I enjoyed this movie, the character actors are well used.
It was interesting enough to want to follow the story.Ultimately this movie comes off as a low budget Usual Suspects, even pays tribute to it with the last camera shot.