Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fresh and Exciting

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Vampire hunter Carrie Rieger (Pratt) and a small group of helpers infiltrates an industrial building in quest of killing Pashek (Haig) the head of a group of ancient vampires. Two brothers have brought back a long dead Vampire that threatens both Humans and Vampires. 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. Add no jump scares and some cheesy blood and Brotherhood sinks pretty quickly under its own weight. The film makers choose to tell the story cutting back between flashbacks and current time which adds nothing but distraction to the proceedings. The vampire teeth used in this movie are huge and ridiculous looking and are only one step up from those hillbilly teeth you buy in the 25 cent machines at the store.

Well well, again written by those who wrote Bloodrayne and Blade and Alone in the Dark. Do I need to say more, all those didn't do well at the box office except Blade. This one features Ken Foree and Sid Haig. Why I ask myself did they agree to be involved in this peace of a turkey. The vampire teeth are to say the least not frightening. I met Ken twice and Sid once; Sid was a bit of a shy person not easy to talk with, Ken by the other hand was very polite. At the convention there were a lot of problems concerning shoots with the stars, Ken was on of those who staid hours with the fans after wards long after closing time. But here he delivers a stupid role, even Sid who can do a lot better I ask myself why. The storyline never convinced me, and as the blood flows frequently it is also never frightening. My God, this really is a waist of time. But the real horror happens at the end, it's an open ending, aaaaaaaargh don't deliver us part 2!!

The horror genre's extreme boost in popularity since the year 2000 has resulted in quite a couple of annoying trends. There's the numerous amount of pointless remakes, naturally, but also a nearly immeasurable increase in straight-to-video and intolerably cheap & cheesy B-movies released by brand new and supposedly specialized production companies. These days literally everyone thinks they can put together a horror movie, regardless of how inexperienced or untalented they are, and that's the reason why nowadays the lowest shelves in video stores are full of crap nobody ever heard of. "Brotherhood of Blood" seemed to fit into this description perfectly well and at first I wasn't even planning on ever checking it out. The writers/directors duo Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer previously just did some random jobs on films directed by Uwe Boll - not the best reference to mention on your curriculum vitae to begin with - and then promptly came up with their own scenario. Also, vampire movies have been a dried out source for years. 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. Even the local vampire syndicate – led by Sid Haig – is after Thomas, as Vlad Kossei is feared by the other vampires as well as by humans. For whatever reason, the duo of directors opted for a rather confusing narrative structure. The action continuously jumps back and forth between the events that happened three weeks earlier, last night and today. 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. The muddled narration adds very little value to the film and actually raises incoherence and a pretentious atmosphere. A lot more surprising, especially considering the bloody stills on the back of the DVD, is the relatively large amount of boring parts and pointless moments. Multiple scenes just show Victoria Pratt prowling through dark catacombs or trying to get out of chains. Then when you finally expect the film to really break loose, it ends with the biggest cliffhanger I've seen in years. They better make a sequel now, or else … The acting performances are above average, but still I feel those acclaimed names could do better. I wonder if father Sean watches all that junk his son Jason Connery appears in.

While most mysteries try to shock you too often with twists and even more twists, it turns out to be overkill. This film encompassed such ideas with flair, originality an an intelligent script.That being said, there were parts of it that were pleasantly surprising. 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. Also, I felt that there was a decent amount of chemistry between her and the young vampire. Maybe not enough for an Emmy, but for a horror movie it was pleasantly surprising.