Kristanna Loken Stars in BloodRayne 2006 Film
Uwe Boll Directs a Live Action Adaptation of the Majesco Game Series
Sep 13, 2009 Christopher Sharman
Vampires exist and are capable of having half-vampire children with human women. BloodRayne follows one such child, a dhampir. Rayne has a vampire's need for blood, and cannot tolerate water. However, unlike vampires, she is able to withstand the daylight.
Bloodrayne's Plot and Characters
In the Eighteenth Century, vampires walk the earth, and most are under the control of the vicious Vampire King, Kagan (Ben Kingsley). Some years ago Kagan raped a woman and fathered a dhampir, who would later witness Kagan killing her mother. The dhampir grew up to become Rayne (Kristanna Loken). Initially Rayne is an attraction at a Romanian carnival freak show, her skin cannot tolerate water (not holy water just water in general) and burns - but then heals at an inhuman speed. She is kept in a cage and one night a drunken member of the carnival attempts to force himself upon her. She kills him, and everyone else in the carnival then escapes.
She is tracked down by Sebastian (Matthew Davis), Vladimir (Michael Madsen), and Katarin (Michelle Rodriguez) - all members of Brimstone, a secret society dedicated to tracking down and killing the vampires of the world. They agree to help her in tracking down her father, so that she can kill him in revenge for raping and murdering her mother.
Meanwhile, Kagan's human servants are seeking the pieces of the ancient vampire mystery. If Kagan absorbs them then he will become immune to water, daylight and the effects of the cross.
Good Game, Very, Very Bad Film
Uwe Boll has become famous for producing some of the worst films in recent years. His name seldom appears in the credits any more because seeing his name is now enough to cause someone to change their mind about watching the film. BloodRayne was Boll's third adaptation of a game (the previous two being House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark) and is an increadibly poor adaptation of an enjoyable game.
These days it seems that any low budget or big budget horror film will focus on vampires in some way. However, because of the amount of vampire films out there already and the number being made it is very difficult to make something original.
Rayne is a dhampir like the Marvel Comic’s character Blade; however, the Blade films are excellent examples of a vampire film that is done well. BloodRayne is at the other extreme end of the scale. Rayne has no martial arts training what so ever, the fights scenes are poorly choreographed and look like the actors were just given the weapons and timidly hit at one another whilst the cameras rolled.
Rayne absorbs the eye of the powerful vampire and gains the ability to tolerate water. However, because she cannot tolerate water before absorbing the eye it begs the question of how she can go from being blood-soaked in one scene to being clean in the next. If she cannot wash in water then how does she get clean? Rayne can also swim later on in the film despite the fact that she hasn’t been able to enter water for her entire life. Are the audience supposed to believe that even though they haven’t seen it, Rayne has gone off and learned how to swim?
Uwe Boll Still Attracts Major Actors: Ben Kinglsey
The supporting cast have had movie success. Ben Kingsley is an Oscar winning actor - what is he doing in this film? Michael Madsen was once the terrifying Mr. Blonde who happily tortured a man whilst playing “Stuck in the Middle with You” in Reservoir Dogs. Here he isn’t even a shadow of Mr Blonde. For some reason he says a few words of his line, pauses and draws breath, then finishes the line. The sentences are not that complicated, he could quite easily say them all in one breath without having to take a gasp of air midway through. Billy Zane (credited as a ‘guest star’ - are there guest stars in a film?) achieved worldwide recognition for his role in Titanic, other stars include Meatloaf, and Michelle Rodriguez, both of whom have proven that they can act when the occasion calls for it.
There is also a sequence in which Rayne whilst in the grips of bloodlust pushes Sebastian up against the bars of a cell and has sex with him. The scene is entirely pointless because there has been absolutely no chemistry or tension, sexual or otherwise, between the two up to that point - and there is none afterwards. Vampires and sex seem to go hand in hand.
In both modern films and television series vampires and humans cannot help to help getting naked and having sex with one another (think Season 6 of Buffy and new series True Blood). Sex scenes for the sake of showing sex or nudity are unnecessary and suggest that the point of them is to draw in an audience. If a film or show cannot draw in an audience without providing cheap titillation then maybe they shouldn’t have been commissioned.
There is nothing that makes BloodRayne worth watching.
0/5
One of the worst films ever made
Bloodrayne
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