in the blood movie review

Film Review: ‘In the Blood’

Gina Carano plays a new bride looking for her kidnapped husband in this serviceable action vehicle.

By Ben Kenigsberg

Ben Kenigsberg

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Pulses are likely to remain level during “ In the Blood ,” a serviceable vehicle for MMA champ Gina Carano (“Haywire”). In a plot that variously recalls “True Lies,” “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “Kill Bill,” Carano plays a new bride looking forward to a tranquil domestic life who’s forced to deploy her secret, all-purpose beatdown skills after her husband disappears. Given the limited release (the film is opening simultaneously on VOD), B.O. potency will depend on getting the word out to Carano’s fans, who may already be used to watching her on pay-per-view.

Perhaps inadvertently, the kidnapped-vacationers plot revisits territory director John Stockwell explored in 2006’s organ-trafficking thriller “Turistas,” down to a subplot involving a nonconsensual transfusion. A prologue sets the stage on the mean streets of Bridgeport, Conn., in 2002, when Ava (played as a teenager by Paloma Olympia Louvat) witnesses and avenges the murder of her self-styled “outlaw” father (Stephen Lang) —  a “biker drug lord,” per the press notes. Subsequent flashbacks reveal that he trained her to fight, drilling her with mantras like “Survivors have scars. Losers have funerals.” In one sequence, she fends off the advances of a group of buyers attempting to rape her.

From the prologue, the movie flashes forward to Arlington, Va., where Ava prepares to marry Derek (Cam Gigandet), whom we’re told she met at a needle exchange.  The newlyweds begin to celebrate their nuptials at Derek’s family getaway in the Dominican Republic (filmed in Puerto Rico locations). One night, they’re encouraged by gregarious local Manny (Ismael Cruz Cordova) to visit a dance club, where trouble ensues when local gangster Big Biz (Danny Trejo) attempts to cut in on the couple’s dance moves. The resulting brawl, with Carano weaponizing an ice bucket, seems to pique the interest of the area mob.

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Ensnaring the Americans in a literal web, Manny invites them to go ziplining. The outcome is foreordained —  one mile-long line is known as “the widowmaker” —  but Stockwell still ekes out a fair bit of suspense, intercutting Derek’s camera footage with the broader action. When Derek falls, an ambulance is summoned —  but after Ava races to the clinic, her husband is nowhere to be found.

All signs point to kidnapping, yet the Punta Cana police chief (Luis Guzman) seems to suspect that Ava was involved. Derek’s wealthy father (Treat Williams), convinced from the start that the bride only wanted his son for money, also thinks so. To prove her case, Ava goes full “Death Wish.” Not just a martial artist, Ava proves proficient in amateur surgery (“Oh, but you can live without your spleen, can’t you?”), for which Stockwell supplies at least one organ-cam closeup.

In “Haywire,” Steven Soderbergh suggested the best way to appreciate Carano’s talents was via a combination of long takes and quick, brutal action sequences. “In the Blood” isn’t on the same level of formal sophistication, though it has a couple of first-rate sequences, notably a handcuffed Ava’s escape from a supervised ferry bathroom visit. The jaw-drop factor that comes from seeing Carano’s moves is often spoiled because of too much cutting or, in the case of the dance club sequence, excess strobing. The climactic chase feels overextended, departing for too long from the star, whose lack of affect doesn’t dim her fearsome presence.

Tech credits are slick, perhaps overly so. An early montage of Ava and Derek’s honeymoon  —  replete with jet skiing, swimming, and semi-clothed nuzzling —  could, unlike the rest of the film, easily double as the work of a tourism board.

Reviewed online, New York, April 2, 2014. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 108 MIN.  

• Production: (U.K.-Puerto Rico) An Anchor Bay Films and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (in U.S.) release and presentation of a Movie Package Co. production in association with Mica Entertainment, the Way We Roll Prods., the Pimienta Film Co. Produced by Raymond Mansfield, Shaun Redick, Marcia Grasic, Cash Warren. Executive producers, Lee Portnoi, David R. Arnold, Nicola Horlick, Andrew Mann, Glenn M. Stewart, Stefan Sonnenfeld, Mark Lindsay, Luillo Ruiz, James Gibb, Rachel Green, Belly Torres, Glenn Murray, Dale Armin Johnson, Julie B. May, Mike Ilitch, Jr. Co-producers, Jackie Lee, Jennie Frisbie.
• Crew: Directed by John Stockwell. Screenplay, James Robert Johnston, Bennett Yellin. Camera (color), P.J. Lopez; editors, Doug Walker, Lucas Eskin; music, Paul Raslinger; music supervisor, Andy Ross; production designer, Monica Monserrate; art director, Luis López-Baquero; set decorator, Carmen Marie Colon Mejía; costume designer, Milagros Nunez; sound (DTS/SDDS/Dolby Digital), Margarita Aponte; supervising sound editor, Michael Ferdie; re-recording mixers, Chris Reynolds, Wade Chamberlain; visual effects supervisor, Jason Schugardt; visual effects, Method Studios; stunt coordinator, Ben Bray; line producer, Julie Hartley; assistant director, Franklin Vallette; casting, JC Cantu.
• With: Gina Carano, Cam Gigandet, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Luis Guzman, Treat Williams, Amaury Nolasco, Stephen Lang, Danny Trejo, Yvette Yates, Eloise Mumford, Hannah Cowley, Paloma Olympia Louvat. (English, Spanish dialogue)

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In the Blood Review

Honeymoon in hell..

Despite these lingering plot threads that get no follow-up, the character work by Carano and the sheer action chops of the movie make for an enjoyable watch, if not a very memorable one. In the Blood is worth checking out if you’re looking a decent action flick on a Saturday night.

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Brad Anderson's “ Blood ” wants to serve as both a grisly horror thriller and an exercise in situational ethics. It presents a seemingly impossible situation to viewers and asks them “What would you do?” The problem is that it's never gripping or scary enough to work as the former and never engaging to work as the latter. "Blood" delivers plenty of the titular substance but not much else of note other than a couple of decent scenes here and there; a central performance from Michelle Monaghan is ultimately more interesting than the film surrounding it.

Monaghan plays Jess, a nurse and recovering addict in the throes of a contentious divorce from her husband ( Skeet Ulrich ). In order to make a fresh start, she moves to the remote farmhouse that belonged to her late parents with her kids, teen daughter Tyler (Skylar Morgan Jones) and young son Owen ( Finlay Wojtak-Hissong ). The three have hardly settled in when their dog, seemingly fixated on something in the forbidding woods right next door, runs out into the night. A few days later, the dog returns, covered in blood with a weird green gleam in his eye. The dog takes a chomp out of Owen, who is rushed to the hospital. Owen appears to have contracted some infection that leaves him almost at death’s door.

Jess is despairing—worried both about the health of her child and how her ex will use this against her in their divorce—when she enters Owen’s hospital room one day and finds that he has taken the bag of the blood being used for a transfusion and is sucking away at as if it were a juice box. She is revulsed, of course, but when he quickly perks back up immediately afterward only to regress a little while later, she knows what to do. Not telling anyone about Owen’s condition, she sneaks a few bags of blood out of the hospital’s supply and takes him home to care for him away from prying eyes. But the purloined plasma cannot last forever. And when she is no longer able to access the hospital’s blood supply, her determination to keep her son alive forces her into the increasingly desperate acts that probably won’t be commemorated on Mother’s Day cards anytime soon.

The film's basic premise—how far would you go to keep your child alive—is not particularly subtle, I grant you, but it's a grabber. The trouble with the film is that once Will Honley ’s screenplay establishes it, it fails to do much of anything of interest with it. We are meant to empathize with Jess and the gruesome lengths that she is forced to go to to keep Owen alive, but her actions are so inconsistent that it is hard to fully get on board with her increasingly messy actions. 

Anderson, who has dabbled in the horror genre more successfully in the past with such films as “Session 9,” “ The Machinist ” and “Vanishing on 7th Street,” directs the material in a competent enough manner for most of the running time. But not even he can make much of the increasingly convoluted plot machinations of the concluding scenes, which are closer to inspiring unintentional laughs than chills, and leave a lot of seemingly pertinent questions unanswered.

And yet, while the film does not succeed, it has a couple of points of interest. The main one is Monaghan, who has done some wonderful work in the past in films such as the cult favorite “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and “ Trucker ” (a straightforward indie drama that has certain thematic similarities to “Blood”) but has never quite had the significant star-making role she clearly deserves. This film isn’t it, though she clearly puts her all into the part of Jess. That "Blood" doesn’t fly off the tracks into complete implausibility (at least until the finale) is due almost entirely to her considerable efforts. There are also a couple of scenes that work, at least on an individual basis—in my favorite, Tyler finally learns about her brother’s ghastly secret and the conversation they have as a result has a truth and believability to it that is otherwise absent in the film.

Despite those elements, I cannot recommend “Blood.” But I can point you in the direction of another film that utilizes the same basic premise in a more exciting and thought-provoking manner: “My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To,” an indie horror exercise from Jonathan Cuartas . Cuartas' film works as a spin on the typical vampire mythos and explores the dark and dysfunctional side of family ties that bind and eventually choke. “Blood” raises the same issues but lacks the nerve to explore them meaningfully. Anderson's film often feels like it's in dire need of a creative transfusion. 

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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In the Blood review – low-budget geezers-with-guns histrionics

T his lo-fi Brit debut follows Hyena and Snow in Paradise in attempting to convert its budgetary limitations into a grimily serious aesthetic. But it’s as listless as its protagonist – a junkie safe-cracker (Joe Cole) given 24 hours, without smack, to secure a payload for crime boss Peter Bowles. Fine actors (Alison Steadman, Phil Davis) nudge our boy forward, yet the rehabilitation and race-against-time narratives prove fundamentally at odds: we’re left watching two films cancelling each other out. Its one oddly resonant image – the shivering addict, alone in a basement with the unyielding safe – is forgotten amid standard geezers-with-guns histrionics.

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IN THE BLOOD

Brief native nudity

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“The only thing that’s going to save the game in Africa is hunting.” A paradox? Maybe not, according to film maker George Butler, who believes that “professional hunters act as a deterrent to hunting and a healthy stimulus to local economies.” Convinced that big game hunting actually results in conservation, Butler set out to make the first feature film ever about hunting. IN THE BLOOD is not just an outing into the woods, but “a figurative and literal safari into the past in search of a future.”

The film retraces two safaris. The first is a year-long safari trip that Theodore Roosevelt made with his son, Kermit, in 1909 through eastern Africa. Roosevelt recorded the trip in a book, AFRICAN GAME TRAIL, and on film using the first movie camera ever in the region. The second is a 1986 hunt in which Roosevelt’s grandson, Ted, embarked with a small group of hunters and film crew to explore the relationship between hunting and conservation. There are arguments around the campfire about conservation, stalking sequences that give a vivid sense of what it is to hunt and dramatic moments when the hunter takes his prey.

There is also a final hunt where legendary Kenyan white hunter, Robin Hurt, takes Butler’s son, Tyssen, 13, to pursue the Cape buffalo. He tests his skills with the powerful Holland & Holland rifle that was used to shoot big game by President Roosevelt. The most valuable gun in the world (at $5 million), it is one of the leitmotifs of the film and ties together the 1909 and 1986 safaris.

The film’s title is inspired by Hurt: “If hunting is in your blood, it’s with you your whole life.” The title also refers to the tradition of hunting passed down from father to son, as well as to the different generations of Roosevelts portrayed in the film. Thus, those values embodied in the first trip are brought forward to the second.

This strongly opinionated documentary raises serious questions about the values of hunting in Africa and in our own country. Motivating intelligent people to stewardship, the film’s hope is to educate people about the benefits of hunting, and to “bring hunters and preservationists together within the conservationist movement.” Butler, in fact, speaks passionately of highly selective hunting. “We only go for old trophy males. Elephants,” he says, “are the best hunting there is, but because herds in Africa have been dangerously depleted by ivory poachers…. I haven’t let a client shoot one for two years now.”

It should be noted that the new environmentalism expressed in this film has found that those areas of the world with the most regulated, government controlled economies have also had the worst environmental records whether the totalitarian regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, or the authoritarian regimes of Africa and South America. For instance, elephants have been largely left out of private ownership and included under the public trust in most of Africa; therefore, with no one responsible except the central bureaucracy, elephants in these public park areas have been hunted almost to extinction. However, in those areas of Africa (Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, and parts of Zambia) where the elephant is owned, their owners protect them since higher prices for ivory have led the owners to breed, nurture and harvest the elephant as with any other owned livestock. Thus, people do better economically; while the elephant does better ecologically.

The film’s music is a mix of old and new, and represents a rich tapestry of African sounds. IN THE BLOOD is not just for hunters, but for all lovers of animals and natural resources. In fact, the more you care about animals and the environment, the more you’ll want to see IN THE BLOOD to gain a deeper understanding of the issues.

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In The Blood Review

Gina Carano is the only selling point that  In the Blood , a predictable yet enjoyable action flick from  Into the Blue helmer John Stockwell, really needs. After all, a hero who’s charismatic, easy on the eyes and capable of kicking some serious ass is hard to come by. Carano fits the bill quite nicely, and she’s the sole reason that action aficionados will (and should) check out  In the Blood .

Starring as Ava, a newlywed with a rough past who goes on the hunt for her husband (Cam Giganet) after he disappears following a zip-lining accident on their Caribbean honeymoon, Carano gets her first real opportunity to prove herself as a leading lady (I’d argue that Soderbergh’s touch in Haywire made the film more about him than her). Luckily for In the Blood , there’s more to the actress than just her fists. Though the film’s script, from James Robert Johnston and Bennett Yellin, throws some ridiculous plot twists her way, Carano nimbly finds the wounded heart of her battle-scarred protagonist and plays the action-heavy part with surprising emotional gravitas. Even when everything else in the film is absurd to the nth degree, Carano impresses.

After a successful career as a mixed martial artist, Carano broke out into the mainstream with the lead role in  Haywire , then further solidified her status as an action hero with a supporting role in  Fast & Furious 6 . It’s clear to see that  In the Blood is a step down from those two films in terms of budget and ambition, but the flick does pack a punch while also giving Carano a chance to showcase her dramatic chops.

For a large amount of its runtime,  In the Blood  plays like a feminist riff on  Taken , with Ava quickly dispatching dozens of unsavory characters and drawing the attention of the island’s incompetent police (led by Luis Guzmán, slumming it) whilst searching for her husband. Carano brings a fiery intensity to the role, though the action is disappointingly unremarkable. There are few noteworthy fight or chase sequences, and none that will make you laugh out loud in appreciation or wonder at how a certain maneuver was accomplished. Still, Carano kicks ass, and her fighting style is almost hypnotic in its brusque, take-no-prisoners brutality.

The action takes a little while to get going, but once Ava’s on the move, evading cops and chasing down leads,  In the Blood  becomes a surprisingly taut, economical thriller. Stockwell’s hyperkinetic handheld camerawork is occasionally disorienting but mostly effective at emphasizing the urgency and desperation of Ava’s every move. Meanwhile, Paul Haslinger’s tense score only adds to the mounting suspense.

In the Blood goes completely off the rails in its final act, as a series of increasingly improbable twists rob the film of any believability, but the bullets and the punches kept flying with such gleeful abandon that I still found myself having a good time. With a movie like  In the Blood (I mean, that title alone), you have to be willing to suspend your disbelief and just accept certain things (like Ava’s superhuman eyesight, and her incredible ability to walk into the right shady club at exactly the right time… every time). As long as you’re not expecting a particularly coherent thriller, In the Blood has enough smackdowns and firefights to satisfy.

Stephen Lang has been featured considerably by the film’s publicity campaign, but he really has a non-role as Ava’s fugitive father, who appears in flashback to explain how Ava earned her very particular set of skills. The same goes for Danny Trejo, who only appears in two scenes and does little more than chew the scenery (but boy can he chew). Giganet is playing a totally useless character, but he basically fulfills his purpose, establishing passable chemistry with Carano and acting as suitable eye candy for all the ladies who’ll get reluctantly dragged into watching  In the Blood with their overly eager boyfriends.

Guzmán, portraying a real skeeze of a police captain, is forced to play straight throughout his performance, which must have been tough for the typically over-the-top actor. Unfortunately, above all else, he just doesn’t look like he’s having much fun with the underwritten role, especially whenever he’s called in for an exposition dump. The only actor playing on Carano’s level is Amaury Nolasco, who sinks his teeth into the role of a vicious, cancer-riddled gangster named Silvio. The thrilling (if overlong) final showdown between the two is unquestionably  In the Blood ‘s strongest scene.

Taken simply as an action vehicle for Carano, In the Blood does its job. Yes, the plot is holey, the supporting cast is largely ineffectual and I didn’t buy it for a second, but there’s something to be said for supremely undemanding action fare like this. Plus, any movie brave enough to let Carano both play dirty and actually act gets a pass in my book. The revelation that the actress can both out-fight and out-perform everyone else in the flick is just icing on the cake.

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In the Blood

2016, Drama, 1h 30m

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In the blood   photos.

Four 20-somethings live out their last summer in Copenhagen before adulthood really sets in.

Genre: Drama

Original Language: Danish

Director: Rasmus Heisterberg

Producer: Caroline Schlüter Bingestam

Writer: Rasmus Heisterberg

Release Date (Streaming): Aug 9, 2017

Runtime: 1h 30m

Production Co: Profile Pictures

Cast & Crew

Kristoffer Bech

Elliott Crosset Hove

Mads Reuther

Vic Carmen Sonne

Lea Gregersen

Esben Dalgaard

Zinnini Elkington

Caroline Lüthje

Rikke Lylloff

David Péronard

Rasmus Heisterberg

Screenwriter

Caroline Schlüter Bingestam

Thomas Marott

Photographer

Þór Sigurjónsson

Executive Producer

Ditte Milsted

Jacob Jarek

Niels Thastum

Cinematographer

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In the Blood

Four students buy an apartment together in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, and move in together. We follow their 20s, their ups and downs and the loneliness they discover after they split. Four students buy an apartment together in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, and move in together. We follow their 20s, their ups and downs and the loneliness they discover after they split. Four students buy an apartment together in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, and move in together. We follow their 20s, their ups and downs and the loneliness they discover after they split.

• Rasmus Heisterberg
• Kristoffer Bech
• Susana Hermansen Valenzuela
• Nana Kirstine Bruhn-Rasmussen
• 3 User reviews
• 10 Critic reviews
• 3 wins & 13 nominations

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• Runtime 1 hour 54 minutes

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‘Abigail’ Review – Radio Silence Delivers Another Gory Good Time at the Movies

Abigail , the latest from directors  Matt Bettinelli-Olpin  and  Tyler Gillett , feels like a spiritual sibling to their 2019 hit  Ready or Not . Both are set almost entirely within a sprawling, warm-toned mansion and both deliver copious blood splatter to a delightfully satisfying degree. But Abigail  is an inverse of  Ready or Not ; instead of one heroine targeted and preyed upon by a group of morally dubious enemies, it’s one vicious threat picking off morally dubious kidnappers one by one, slasher style.

While that may make for a more conventional watch with fewer surprises, Radio Silence’s ballerina vampire movie is a bloody blast all the same.

The heist-turned-vampire feature begins with the coordinated kidnapping of 12-year-old ballerina Abigail ( Alisha Weir ), the daughter of a powerful crime lord guaranteed to fetch a hefty ransom prize. Splitting the obscene loot are the six tasked with snatching Abigail from her home and safeguarding her for 24 hours: ex-cop Frank ( Dan Stevens ), medic and Abigail caretaker Joey ( Melissa Barrera ), endearing himbo muscleman Peter ( Kevin Durand ), spunky hacker Sammy ( Kathryn Newton ), wheelman Dean (the late  Angus Cloud ), and stoic ex-military gunman Rickles ( William Catlett ). The group of strangers arrive at their luxury hideout with minimal hiccups, where they’re given the rundown by employer Lambert ( Giancarlo Esposito ) and forced to give up their phones. Once left to their own devices, it quickly becomes clear that their kidnapping stint comes with job hazards they couldn’t have anticipated.

(from left) Dean (Angus Cloud), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Abigail (Alisha Weir, back to camera), Peter (Kevin Durand), Frank (Dan Stevens, background), Joey (Melissa Barrera) and Rickles (Will Catlett) in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.

While the marketing for Abigail may have already revealed the precise threat that this code-named Rat Pack is dealing with, it actually takes a while for the unwitting kidnappers to discover the bloody truth. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett, working from a script by Guy Busick  and  Stephen Shields , relegate their murderous ballerina to the background for much of the first half to establish the group dynamics and stakes. That’s not a bad thing;  Abigail boasts an ensemble cast that makes you want to spend time with them. Early scenes see the six feel each other out, test boundaries, and forge tenuous alliances in acerbically funny ways that make key exposition feel far less tedious than it would in lesser hands. More impressively, this game cast adds depth and pathos to their archetypical roles within the heist and horror.

Barrera’s Joey quickly emerges as the film’s antiheroine for her street smarts and boundless empathy, tasked with the role of the straight man. Joey keeps her cool, as much as possible, even when the horror kicks arrive in full. While Barrera makes easy work of instilling rooting interest and delivering some of the tougher bursts of exposition, she’s often upstaged by Stevens, having a clear blast playing the sleazy but savvy Frank. But Stevens isn’t the only scene-stealer here. Newton, especially through her scene partners, including Cloud, delivers some of the film’s funniest moments with her infectious charisma and witty line delivery. But it’s Durand’s loveable but dumb enforcer that threatens to steal it all, with Peter serving as the butt of many jokes to an unbelievably charming degree. And when Weir finally unleashes her inner monster, her ferocious yet layered portrayal easily establishes the young actor as a star on the rise.

(from left) Abigail (Alisha Weir) and Sammy (Kathryn Newton) in Abigail, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett.

It’s the cast and their memorable characters that carry  Abigail far when the build-up adheres to familiar narrative beats. There’s a sense of awareness of the cinematic vampires that have paved the way, with Abigail acknowledging and borrowing from various aspects of the vampire mythos, but the film never attempts to reinvent the wheel. Instead, Abigail just wants you to have a good time seeing its unlucky criminals in over their heads in increasingly deranged and violent ways. Ultimately, a few unexpected narrative turns herald in one of the goriest finales to come along in quite some time: gorehounds, this one is definitely all for you.

The exquisitely detailed production design by  Susie Cullen and a heaping helping of viscera and gore from the SFX team bolster a slick production (in more ways than one) that gives this enthusiastic cast plenty to sink their teeth into. Abigail  is savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore, offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth. Though  Abigail may be too methodical in its steady ramp-up toward full-blown insanity, the brilliant ensemble makes the journey worth it. With an insane commitment to arterial spray, Abigail  winds up another crowd-pleaser from Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett. It’s poised to deliver the most fun you’ll have at the movies this year.

Abigail releases in theaters on April 19, 2024.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

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‘life eater’ features clever gameplay, but falls short of its full potential [review].

Developer Strange Scaffold has an impressive variety of games in their catalog. Last year, they published the excellent monster-hunting Max Payne -like El Paso, Elsewhere , which I consider to be one of my favorite games of 2023, but that doesn’t mean all their games are third person shooters.

They’ve got a sci-fi body horror economy game ( Space Warlord Organ Trading Simulator ), a cutesy story-based poker game ( Sunshine Shuffle ), and even an adventure game where you talk to stock photos of dogs ( An Airport for Aliens Currently Run by Dogs ). Even knowing the variety of both theme and gameplay they’ve worked in, I don’t think I was prepared for them to announce Life Eater , which they describe as a “horror fantasy kidnapping simulator,” which simultaneously ended up being exactly what it says and nothing like I expected.

The story setup is pretty simple: you’re a modern-day druid who lives in the suburbs, and once a year you must sacrifice a person to your god Zimforth in order to keep the world from ending. After the first chapter of the game, the protagonist kidnaps a man and locks him in a cage in his basement, and the relationship between these two is the crux of the drama. Throughout the years you see their relationship evolve as they discuss heavy themes of questioning your faith and how far you let your devotion take you. It was clear from El Paso, Elsewhere that Strange Scaffold’s creative director Xalavier Nelson Jr. has a good sense for stories and characters, and there’s a great deal of warmth and relatability in the writing of these two. It’s all told through cutscenes featuring stylish still images with full voice acting, making for a very attractive narrative package to go between the levels.

So what exactly is a “horror fantasy kidnapping simulator” and what does that entail gameplay-wise? It’s a lot more abstract than you might expect. Instead of actually controlling an avatar and sneaking around, you use a video editor-like interface to slowly reveal information about your target’s schedule until you have revealed the percentage of their schedule needed to abduct them without getting caught. Each person has a timeline for each day of the week, and initially they’re full of boxes blocked out by static. Click on that box and you’ll get three options for how to reveal it, each costing a different amount of time and adding a different amount of suspicion to your character.

These options range from “slash tire” to “hack computer” to “enter home,” but this is mostly just flavor text, as the important part is the ‘resources’ that it uses. Each level has a specific amount of time you’re given before you need to abduct the targets, so watching your time is extremely vital. The suspicion meter also needs to be managed, but that can be reduced by activities that cost time. Even if you fill your suspicion meter, it’s not game over, as you’re allowed three strikes before you’re caught by authorities. Every action option has a different chance of successfully uncovering the activity on that block, but it never feels clear exactly what the percentages are you’re dealing with. Success reveals the schedule block with activities like sleeping, eating, working, etc., allowing you to eventually get the shape of the person’s day.

While it’s a very clever set up, sometimes the game struggles to balance the abstract nature of the mechanics with the narrative it’s trying to tell through the options and schedules. For a while I was paying attention to whether I was stealing a person’s pet or stalking their social media, but after clicking my way through several schedule blocks, I was mostly just looking at the numbers involved. Even when I was paying attention, the option still felt divorced from the action, as it wouldn’t feel natural for something like slashing someone’s tires to reveal that they were having dinner at that time. That said, there were a lot of tense times where I had to carefully choose my options in order to get by, and that tension felt exciting when it worked.

Aside from the resource game of revealing the schedule, there is a clever puzzle aspect in Life Eater that draws you back into the story of the game. In many of the levels, you’ll be given a vague order from Zimforth about who your target should be, and you’ll have to investigate multiple people in order to figure out which one is the correct target. This forces you to engage with the narrative aspects of revealing their schedule, tying mechanics and story together nicely. There were times when I was genuinely surprised by the results of one of these investigations paying off, but other times I got frustrated trying to figure out exactly what the game was trying to tell me. If you miss the wrong schedule square, it can really hamper the progress of your investigation, dragging things out and forcing you to play the level over again to give it another shot. I feel like there was at least one level where I just picked my victim based on a hunch and ended up being correct, leaving me unsure if I figured out the designer’s intentions for the puzzle, which left me feeling unsatisfied.

After each abduction, you also are tasked with performing the sacrifice ritual to appease Zimforth. The screen for this involves the victim’s internal organs along with some questions about them that need to be answered to guide the ritual. For example, you’ll need to either remove the victim’s pancreas or large intestine based on whether or not they have a commute, or break specific ribs if they have children. These questions never change from level to level, but they are another tactic to get you to be more involved with the actual content of your victim’s schedule. Although there was a fun tension to having to continue to dig for these answers even if you’re already revealed the required amount of their schedule, there were times where the answers felt less clear than they should or where I was failing the ritual for reasons that were not apparent to me.

Outside of the very good looking cinematics, the visual design in Life Eater is serviceable but underwhelming. It’s got a great color palette that ties it to the cutscenes, but the video editor aesthetic, while novel to see as a main interface in a game, doesn’t particularly wow you visually. Everything in the UI is pretty clear and laid out in an intuitive fashion, but for being such a UI driven game, there isn’t really a next level art focus on it.

Strange Scaffold prides themselves on their tight and worker-healthy studio culture, so it’s nice to see a game like this that’s properly scoped. It has its core mechanic down, it finds ways to add wrinkles, and gets out before it feels like it’s gotten too stale. Over the three hour campaign, I liked the story it laid out through both the cutscenes and mechanics, but I still wish there would have been a bit more polish to the final product. While there were some great moments that were revealed in the investigations, those moments of inspiration were less frequent than I would have liked. I appreciate when a game can meld mechanics and story together, and this shows that they can do it, but there’s a few too many points of frustration in the structure that can occasionally get in the way. I definitely see the storytelling potential that this format has, so I’m hoping that the Endless Mode, which is coming after launch, will help refine that process and show what it can really do.

Until then, Life Eater is a clever experiment in using a unique gameplay mechanic to tell a compelling tale that falls short of its full potential.

Life Eater arrives April 16th on PC via Steam . Code provided by publisher.

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Abigail’s Debut Score on Rotten Tomatoes & Early Reviews Are Scary Good

The vampire ballerina's upcoming horror flick is impressing critics, which has resulted in a scary good rating on the RT Tomatometer.

• Abigail registers 85% on the Tomatometer against 13 reviews, at the time of this writing.
• The young actress portraying the vampire ballerina, Alisha Weir, shines, effortlessly switching from terrified to savage, and delivers a commanding performance on screen.
• Critics praise Abigail for being extremely bloody, fun, humorous and fresh; setting the bar high as the most enjoyable horror movie of the year.

The vampire ballerina is ready to play with her food and make some noise at the box office. Universal Pictures’ Abigail officially drops in theaters on April 19, but the critics are already sinking their teeth — not fangs — into the upcoming horror film. And, at the time of this writing, those reactions have resulted in a scary good score on Rotten Tomatoes. Abigail currently registers 85% against 13 reviews on the Tomatometer. Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting writes:

With an insane commitment to arterial spray and an enthusiastic ensemble, Abigail winds up another crowd-pleaser from [Matt] Bettinelli-Olpin and [Tyler] Gillett. It's a bloody blast.

Abigail (2024)

Michael Gingold of Rue Morgue Magazine adds:

The standout is Weir, commanding the screen despite her small stature and effortlessly switching from apparently helpless, terrified child to savage predator with a mordant sense of humor.

Alisha Weir is the young actress responsible for bringing the latest vampiric villain to life on the big screen, and Sharai Bohannon of the A Nightmare on Fierce Street podcast calls the character Abigail “a new favorite monster.” Bohannon also says in the full-length review:

Abigail is a fun, bloody ride. It also has the most lovable ensemble of morally grey characters this year. The film introduces a new favorite monster into the genre and gives her room to take the biggest swings possible. I lived!

Early Reviews from the Critics Praise Abigail

Whether Abigail (Weir) turns out to be Dracula's daughter, or not, remains to be seen (no spoilers here). Regardless, the early reviews for Universal Pictures' latest horror entry are quite promising. And it will need every advantage since the macabre movie will go head-to-head with the Henry Cavill-led The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare in theaters. But, for now, it's Abigail's time to dance in the spotlight and celebrate the film's scary good RT score. Jordan Williams of Screen Rant writes:

In what may become one of the greatest vampire movies of all time, Abigail provides an extremely bloody, fun, humorous & fresh take on the subgenre.

BJ Colangelo of Slash Film calls Abigail "a perfect horror movie" and also says in the full review:

'Abigail' sets the bar as the most fun you can have with a horror movie of the year. In other words, 'Abigail' is horror on pointe.

25 Great Vampire Movies to Sink Your Teeth Into

While this is a spoiler free report, fans going to see Abigail should know that the film's directors actually apologized to the movie's performers because of all the blood utilized during the production. Nevertheless, the excessive use of ichor hasn't stopped critics from raving about the horror flick. Collider's own Perri Nemiroff had her sights set high going into Abigail, and the horror flick still lived up to expectations. Nemiroff called the vampire movie:

A blood-soaked bonkers good time. A clever spin on the vampire genre filled with loads of wild set pieces and gore, further fueled by a perfectly cast electric ensemble.

Abigail opens in theaters on April 19. And fans can whet their appetites for the horror film by watching the official trailer below:

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Critic’s Pick

‘In Flames’ Review: A Patriarchy Horror Story

Set in Pakistan, the story of a young woman and her family, hemmed in by men, shifts from realism to genre, with heart-pumping consequences.

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By Alissa Wilkinson

It takes about an hour for “In Flames” to reveal itself as proper genre horror, but trepidation lurks from the start. In Karachi, Pakistan, the 20-something Mariam (Ramesha Nawal) lives with her widowed mother, Fariha (Bakhtawar Mazhar), and her younger brother, Bilal (Jibran Khan), who’s mostly glued to his video games. The family has been financially dependent on Fariha’s father-in-law, but as the film opens, he has just died — and Fariha’s brother-in-law, Uncle Nasir (Adnan Shah Tipu), is suddenly very interested in the relatives he had been neglecting.

Fariha teaches at an elementary school, and Mariam is studying for exams that will qualify her to be a doctor. They’re smart, capable women who are less concerned with dismantling established social orders than they are with keeping their home and family intact. Yet their lives are hemmed in by the men around them, with a constriction that’s suffocating. For one, there is Uncle Nasir, who has offered to pay the family’s outstanding debts if Fariha signs some documents, which Mariam pleads with her to avoid doing. But there’s also the man who throws a brick through the car window when Mariam is driving to the library, calling her a whore. Or the man who lurks outside her window, masturbating. Or even the nice young man from the library, Asad (Omar Javaid), who won’t leave Mariam alone.

As the women scramble to save their home, the walls close in on them, and that’s the point: “In Flames,” a confident feature debut written and directed by Zarrar Kahn, is one of several recent films from around the world that frame patriarchy as a nightmare. The most recent may be “ Shayda ,” set in Iran, but even movies like “Poor Things” and “Promising Young Woman” play with the same idea, albeit with a lighter touch. This one is set in Pakistan, in the midst of debates about religious fundamentalism and gender roles, but the outlines are familiar even to audiences in very different circumstances. Men commit obvious, blatant offenses, confident the system is stacked in their favor. But even the “good guys” are locked in a culture that rewards them for refusing to listen to the women who, it’s made clear, are holding the country together.

That means the horror extends to the male perpetrators, who couldn’t find their way out of the maze of unjust systems if they tried. But there’s no question the women bear the brunt of it, whether the perpetrator is abusive, or greedy, or just clueless. To seek help is fruitless, and dangerous; being in debt to yet one more man is another way to put yourself at risk.

Kahn manages to assemble the story in a way that escapes feeling like a series of object lessons. He centers the story on Mariam, giving Nawal’s expressive eyes plenty of time to convey emotions she dares not speak aloud. Mariam’s environment signals her inner life. Sometimes the character is in claustrophobic interiors, where she can’t escape others’ prying eyes; sometimes she’s blessedly alone; and sometimes she’s experiencing brief moments of respite in expansive, beautiful scenery. She feels a pull between the freedom she craves and the responsibility she feels to her family. Technically, Mariam is a plucky heroine. But she isn’t rebellious, or even defiant. She’s just trying to survive.

Wisely, Kahn creates a world in which Mariam and Fariha cannot help but be pulled apart, ruptured by the patriarchy’s force. The only way for each to endure is to depend on yet another man to help them, which has profoundly middling results, and an element of always-present danger. When the film finally gives way to full horror, the pace picks up, and we see what the movie’s been doing all along. Oppression isn’t always blatant, and it isn’t the work of individuals acting alone. It comes like night terrors, paralyzing both oppressor and oppressed — and escape can require drastic action.

In Flames Not rated. In Urdu, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 38 minutes. In theaters.

Alissa Wilkinson is a Times movie critic. She’s been writing about movies since 2005. More about Alissa Wilkinson

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Even before his new film “Civil War” was released, the writer-director Alex Garland faced controversy over his vision of a divided America  with Texas and California as allies.

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Civil War Is a Powerful Alt-Reality War Movie That's Not What It Seems

Kirsten dunst and cailee spaeny star in ex machina director alex garland's latest..

The trailers for Civil War , the latest film by Alex Garland , give the audience a very specific expectation of what they’re going to see. It looks like a film about a United States that is so divided politically, certain states have seceded and the country is at war. A scenario that’s, clearly, a fictionalized nightmare version of our present, where America’s Left and Right have turned to violence. And, in a way, Civil War is that. But it’s also not and that’s why it’s so damned fascinating and special.

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Written and directed by Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) , Civil War is, indeed, about a United States that’s no longer united. A United States at war with itself, hence the title. But one of the main combatants in this war is the Western Forces, a group comprised of California and Texas . Now, everyone knows California and Texas are maybe the two most polar opposite states in our current political climate. So that’s the first clue Civil War isn’t a by-the-book, pro-left, anti-right Hollywood tale. It has an agenda, for sure, and that agenda is certainly more inclusive than not, but Garland very specifically makes it clear that his America is not our America. Thereby, no matter who is watching the movie or what they believe, they can very easily enjoy the story without bias.

In other words, the movie is as objective as possible which, not coincidentally, is also the primary ideology of the film’s main characters: a group of journalists. Kirsten Dunst plays Lee, a famous war photographer traveling the country with a fellow journalist named Joel, played by Wagner Moura. After documenting a terrifying, but all too common, act of violence in New York, Lee and Joel decide to take a trip to Washington D.C. to attempt to interview the president, played by Nick Offerman. Colleague Sammy (Stephen McKinley Henderson) thinks it’s a bad idea, but goes along for the ride anyway, and they also pick up Jessie (Cailee Spaeny), an aspiring photographer who sees Lee as a hero and mentor.

And so the four journalists leave New York for D.C, which is usually an uneventful four or five-hour drive. In this world though, with everything happening across the country, it becomes a much longer, more arduous trip. Certain roads are blocked off. Other areas are not safe. And soon, the group realizes no matter which way they go, there is danger and terror at every turn.

Civil War is Alex Garland’s most mature movie to date. As he sets his characters off on this road trip, you can almost feel him not pushing the agenda one way or the other. An energy permeates the film, as if Garland wants to say something but is shaking and buzzing to hold it back. Much as the journalist heroes continue to preach objectivity and the importance of reporting the facts, no matter the circumstance, Garland too unfurls his narrative accordingly. Lee, Joel, and the crew approach each situation the same way: from a place of care and kindness. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn’t. Often, the most dangerous things we see aren’t in the center of the frame. A burning building here. A pile of bodies there. And while Joel and Lee’s distaste for the president certainly codes them as sympathetic to the WF, the film never really says what the WF stands for. We’re left to wonder, is it more Texas? Or more California?

That the film avoids ever defining the root of the conflict is one of the best things about the movie. Contrarily, one of the worst things is as the characters make the trek from New York to D.C. things can get a little repetitive. They drive, encounter an obstacle, learn something, and move on. Then they drive, encounter an obstacle, learn something, and move on again. The pattern repeats itself a few times and while each of those obstacles unfolds in a different, usually surprising way, some of the film’s momentum does falter following this structure.

Where Civil War doesn’t falter is portraying intensity. Whenever the heroes encounter one of those obstacles, be it a booby-trapped gas station, hidden sniper, or a pink-sunglassed Jesse Plemons, the film’s tension always gets turned to 11. We are rarely sure what’s going to happen, and who is going to survive, primarily because of that objectivity. No one is treated like a hero or villain at the start. That changes scene to scene, of course, but the film, like the journalists, gives everyone an equal shot, which can be scary.

That can also make you question yourself, your biases, and more. Civil War is a film that challenges its audience to put themselves in the shoes of not just the main characters, but everyone. Partially that’s because everything in the movie seems so plausible that we see ourselves, our friends, and our neighbors in it. But it’s also because the performances are all so strong across the board that it’s easy to relate.

It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve seen Kirsten Dunst in a big, showy, starring role like this and watching Civil War , you have no idea why. Dunst gives a nuanced, powerful performance as Lee, a veteran so confident in herself that she’s almost carefree. That is until she meets Jessie. In Jessie, Lee sees a younger version of herself and it terrifies her. Lee knows Jessie, portrayed with lots of raw emotions by Spaeny, is dooming herself to danger. Choosing this life is probably the wrong thing for her. And so what should be a simple, mentor-mentee relationship is always strained. Lee sees too much of herself in Jessie, and Jessie doesn’t care.

Their complex relationship, as well as the gravitas provided by Moura’s Joel and McKinley Henderson’s Sammy, come to a head in the film’s final act, which sees the team finally make it to Washington. Garland then unfurls a guttural, shocking, ground-level war in the heart of the nation’s capital, featuring views of national monuments and more that feel akin to 1996's Independence Day . What happens in these scenes I won’t spoil, but it all builds to a final few minutes destined to be discussed and quoted for as long as movies exist. It’s that fantastic.

Ultimately, Civil War is a Rorschach test designed for maximum impact across political ideologies. You can watch it and view it however you’d like. Is not taking a side a bit of a cop-out? Should there have been a bit more of the story leaning left or right? I’d argue the fact it doesn’t have that is the authorship. Garland isn’t necessarily interested in changing anyone’s mind about anything. He wants any and everyone to consider themselves and what those differences could end up becoming. And hey, if playing it down the middle helps more people see it, that’s just a bonus.

Civil War is in theaters Friday.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel , Star Wars , and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV , and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who .

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