Stupid title, stupid movie.

Prologue

Before getting to my first review, I would like to say a few things regarding horror films. I love horror films. I have loved them since my Papa Bear first exposed me to their glory, by showing me Aliens at age seven and The Howling at age eight. The films terrified me. They also created a bloodlust that could not be satisfied. Throughout my childhood and early adult years, I have seen many horror films hoping to satisfy that bloodlust, for at least a moment.

Lately, the films the horror genre has churned out have been stupid, lacking soul, or made for 11-year-olds having slumber parties. With the decline in truly good horror films and the rise of remakes, prequels, and just plain bad movies with no merit, it appears as if the horror genre may be performing its death rattle.
Still, I gladly see many horror films every year. I go into every horror movie wanting to like it. I give horror movies a little more slack than other genres of film, because after all, they were my first true love.

Chapters 1-The End

Now that you know my heart is in the right place, let me just say Rise: Blood Hunter suuuuuuuuucked.

The plot is fairly generic. Young, hot reporter, Sadie Blake (the tiny Lucy Lui), does a report on misguided teens that worship “vampires” and long to be among the living dead. Sadie, not realizing that the teenagers are actually in contact with real vampires, winds up supper for the head vampire, Bishop. The death and rape of Sadie by Bishop and his female friend is one of the few bright spots of the film. Shot and edited in a hypnotic way that makes murder and cannibalism sexy. Long has the vampire “kiss” been cited as sexual, and this scene makes sure you know that. Well, Sadie wakes up in a morgue; she is dead, naked, and pissed. Predictably, Sadie takes her revenge on Bishop and all of his friends.

The script is the same old thing we have seen over and over. There is no new life and ideas to be found. The same can be said for the directing, with the exception of the already mentioned rape and death scene.

The acting is uninspired. None of the actors seem to enjoy their parts or the film. The actors are simply going through the motions, which is particularly disappointing in the case of detective Vic Mackey, I mean, Michael Chiklis. Chiklis does such a great job breathing life and depth into the bad boy cop of The Shield, Vic Mackey. In Rise, he also plays a detective, but there is no depth or emotion; there is simply a drunk cop who raises little sympathy from the audience.

Rise is a bad movie all the way around, and I really don’t know why I had the moderately high hopes for it that I did. All the warning signs were there. It is the directorial debut of Sebastian Gutierrez, the mastermind behind Snakes on a Plane. The leads have an impressive track record of bad movies, examples being Charlie’s Angels, Code Name: The Cleaner, Fantastic Four, and Snake Eyes. The film also had a direct to video release, which is the kiss of death in the cinematic world. I know you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince, and Rise is just another disappointing frog.