Written and directed by Francis dela Torre, Blood Ransom challenges many of the preconceived notions we have about vampires. At the movie’s outset, it explains what changes to the lore have been made, and they’re actually quite interesting. Such that, in order to complete the transformation to vampire, one must kill with a specific ritual knife within seven days, and that knife is also the only way said vampire can be killed.
What follows isn’t exactly what you’d expect. It’s not a story of bloodthirsty vampires to be. It’s not a blood orgy. It’s not even scary in the traditional horror sense.
It is a thriller, however, which means there’s suspense, and being partially a crime drama and romance, there’s sufficient action. Most surprising from this low-budget film is the subtle Tarantino-like atmosphere created from the intertwining stories. No, it’s not as deeply entrenched as say Pulp Fiction, but it does its job.
In Blood Ransom we have Crystal (Anne Curtis), who has seven days to complete her transformation, which means she needs to make a kill with her knife. For whatever reason, her maker, Roman (Samuel Caleb Hunt) wants her to kill Jeremiah (Alexander Dreymon). But there’s one problem — Crystal and Jeremiah have fallen in love with each other.
From the outside looking in, things look shady, and as a result Jeremiah’s cop friend, Oliver (Dion Basco) reluctantly sets out to investigate.
There are a few other elements to the story, but let’s not give it all away. But, it should be said that along with the small bit of Tarantinoism there’s also a lot of Shakespearean influence, particularly from the feuding families we all know so well from “Romeo & Juliet.”
