With all the movements of awareness in today’s United States in the film industry, it’s hard to be edgy. The horror genre is often either overlooked or over-judged by people that aren’t horror fans, to begin with. So, my review of the movie Blood Creek, fourteen years later…
The Official Summary
In 1936, the Wollners, a German family living in Town Creek, West Virginia, are contacted by the Third Reich to host a visiting scholar. In need of money, they accept Professor Ricard Wirth into their home, unaware of the Third Reich’s practices in the occult or Wirth’s real mission, which will keep the family bound for decades to come.
Now, more than 70 years later, Evan Marshall’s older brother Victor mysteriously disappears near Town Creek for two years and suddenly returns very much alive, having escaped his captors.
DISCLAIMER/WARNING/TRIGGERS: Gore | White Supremacy | Animal Slaughter | Abuse | Language | Nazis | Rabies | Needles | 18+ | Mature.
My Overall Summary
The story of the Vikings coming to America first and leaving specific rune stones behind takes a toll on a German farming family found by a nazi back in the late thirties.
The occult and black magic seem to drive the man to the farm with a powerful run stone. Little did they know it would keep them prisoners in time and space.
In the present-day United States, a young paramedic named Evan Marshall struggles to care for his father, sister-in-law, and nephews after his older veteran brother disappeared.
Let’s Summarise More
Shown with no respect from his father and feeling overwhelmed by his responsibilities toward his brother’s sons, we see an exhausted man trying to hold on to his life until his brother shows up two years after his disappearance.
For revenge on the family that kept him prisoner and bled him for two years, Victor asks his brother to pack all their weapons and start the car. Evan follows his brother to a farm that he later finds out is stuck in time through occultism. He witnesses things that shouldn’t exist, like the undead and a nazi vampire necromancer trying to open his third eye.
Trying to get his revenge, Victor realises that there is much more at stake than avenging his torture, but the lives of those crossing the necromancer’s path.
Once the ritual performed on the blood moon eclipse is over, the necromancer will be unstoppable. Undead horses, dogs, people, and a family stuck in time, the Marshall brothers have much to do to save themselves and maybe the world from a nazi necromancer.
The Obvious Cancel Culture
Horror movies had a ‘B’ listing at best from critics. The movies abide by the ‘horror rules of survival’ and have a recipe for their slasher flicks. As an 80s kid from ‘Gen Y,’ — Note, I do not consider myself a ‘Millennial’ — I grew up with a distinct set of horror rules. But it all changed in the last two decades.
However, there were also more to the 80s and 90s horror movies that grew in those two decades. It paved the road to more variety and dared challenge the rules we were used to. It also extended to other subgenres with the entrance of The Last Broadcast and The Blair Witch Project.
Horror had no more limitations and could spread its wings farther than the eye could see. Horror fans like me saw the genre tackling subjects like feminism, racism, the dark web, mental illness, stereotypes, and more sensitive themes such as rape, necrophilia, and white supremacy.
Today in the United States, the multiple awareness movement causes much trouble with movies tackling certain subjects. Blood Creek is one of them because the movie poster uses the back of the ‘necromancer’s’ head adorning the swastika. Available on. the horror streaming service, Shudder, depending on the device used to look for it, the thumbnail may or may not be the officially released poster.
Because of the cancel era happening, such posters are often removed and can affect movies with significant stories viewed as heinous without being given a chance.
The Role Of The Nazis In Blood Creek
Because history tells us that nazis were after artefacts of various kinds, from extraterrestrials to religious relics, it’s not surprising that the occult would also be of interest.
In Blood Creek, the character of Richard Wirth is a German nazi who found a farm in North America owned by fellow Germans. The land lives on top of a run stone capable of providing immortality and knowledge to the one who can complete the ritual.
This is the origin story of how it all began for the family. The Wollner farm and introducing Richard Wirth, the nazi story stops there. The family is German, the bad guy is also German, and the knowledge of the rune stone is because Wirth researched the occult.
There is no reference to anything else tying the story to nazi Germany or WWII as far as the movie is concerned. We only know what is necessary to the plot and the intentions of Wirth and the rune stones left by the Vikings centuries before Columbus made it to North America.
Would The Story Have Been As Captivating Using Another Villain?
Blood Creek‘s story could have used another country just as thirsty for knowledge. But the intention was to use an ‘absolute’ villain portrait to make the monster even more monstrous. The ultimate evil was crucial to achieving symbolism.
See, Richard Wirth needs more to harvest the power of the Viking rune stone. He wants to possess the ultimate power to rule over the world. Wirth wanted his third eye to come through his forehead and enlighten him to prove the nazis were right about the supreme race.
Of course, they did not leave the Viking rune stones behind in North America for that purpose. However, Wirth’s obsession with the occult had him discover that they could use its power his way. Becoming a vampire necromancer wasn’t enough for Wirth, and decades followed with him fed just enough blood to survive.
The German farming family agreed to Wirth’s payment to be on their property in the thirties. However, they didn’t know Richard Wirth’s intentions.
They needed the money and thought he was an ordinary man. The family was on American soil and weren’t nazis, but they fell at the hands of an evil man. The movie shows that despite what was happening, not all Germans shook the Devil‘s hand.
Sacrifice, Vampire, Necromancer, Undead, Nazis, What Else?
Despite the movie using many monsters to create Richard Wirth’s result, after decades of feeding on blood and proceeding with the ritual, it came out good. Combining such specific monsters and witchery came out as a whole in this setting.
Blood Creek could be better. Not a horror masterpiece, but it is suitable entertainment. The story moves at a steady pace with action scenes. The brothers go through their wounds and torture separately, with different purposes in mind. While Victor wants to avenge his time spent tortured in the black bunker, Evan wants to help the family survive the monster hiding on the land.
Victor wants to kill the necromancer and make him pay for what he did to him. He stops at nothing and doesn’t mind killing whoever steps in his way. However, Evan is the opposite and wants to avoid violence if it means he can save the family. He goes as far as using himself as bait to achieve his goal of killing the Wirth alone, sparing who’s left.
We have many undead showing up during the movie, from the humans dying on the property at the hands of Victor.
But we also have animals dying and being reanimated by Wirth with necromancy to do his bidding. The usage of the Norse alphabet to protect the house from Wirth is clearly shown. The family also had a protective circle around the farm to prevent Wirth from leaving the perimeter.
The Overall Feel Of Blood Creek And Its Story
Blood Creek could be more spectacular but is quite entertaining, nonetheless. The story is intriguing despite having too much exposition for my taste. The action scenes are engaging. While Blood Creek is not groundbreaking, it is a good horror movie to enjoy.
However, the acting is just as good as one would expect from Dominic Purcell, Michael Fassbender and Henry Cavill. Fassbender uses his German to bring us an authentic German man, while Cavill has us fooled into believing he is American.
The big veteran tortured older brother, who has PTSD, is portrayed well by Purcell. Meanwhile, the younger, kind-hearted, devoted young man trying his best to do the right thing is also well-played by Cavill. The two together have great chemistry and you believe they are brothers for the movie’s duration.
My favourite part of the movie is the climax and ending. The last half-hour is one of the best I’ve seen in a paranormal movie. It’s nothing sensational or out of this world but realistic about how both brothers would react to such a nightmarish night.
How Did Victor’s Ending Differ From His Brother
SPOILER ALERT! Stop here if you wish to wash the movie unspoiled!
Realism is hard to achieve when telling a paranormal story. Often characters need to act more naturally, or their actions make little sense. One has to imagine how it would make sense for a fictional character that went through ‘x,y,z’ to act a certain way.
In Blood Creek, it’s another story. Victor went to war, returned, and became a hostage and tortured by a nazi vampire necromancer for two years on a farm stuck in a time bubble.
Victor’s in his nightmare and isolates himself from his family. He has PTSD, and his greatest desire is to kill the one who tortured him. Period. He even needed his brother to remind him of his wife and sons. But in the end, Victor is a prisoner in his world.
How Did Evan’s Ending Differ From His Brother
Meanwhile, we had Evan, who showed an interest in learning from the family throughout the movie. He tried and helped save the family and the other kidnapped victim.
Liese, the daughter, died in his arms. His heart was in the right place, and he thought once Wirth was gone, they would be free, but all that was keeping the family alive was the time bubble.
So, his last act in the movie is putting together the information Liese gave him and marking the emplacement of the other rune stones, which forms a swastika on a map. Evan packs up his stuff and map and goes after each Viking rune stone to destroy them.
Two brothers went through their version of hell and witnessed a ‘demon‘ coming to life, yet two entirely different endings. One belongs to his hell, and the other is on a quest for justice, or maybe avenging Liese’s death. But one thing is for sure. It is realistic because there wouldn’t be a happy ending.
My Conclusion On Blood Creek
While Blood Creek uses the nazis’ fascination with the occult to create evil, it is not disrespectful to WWII and its victims. Wirth was his own person, going after immortality and power.
Is the movie more insensitive to Viking heritage? I am tempted to say yes. How would the Vikings bury their rune stones in a swastika symbol that came from Hinduism? It’s far-fetched, somewhat forced and unnecessary. Vikings had nothing to do with what Wirth stood for.
To me, Viking history becomes part of the story in the wrong way. It gives it a false image of Norse paganism. Today, one would think the right thing to say is using a nazi is insensitive, but no. The Viking heritage caused me trouble. It happens mainly toward the movie’s end, where it derails a little.
With the acting quality, delivery, and creative idea of the main ‘monster,’ the movie redeems itself. It is worth a watch, and I highly recommend knowing what you’re getting into: animal slaughter (no animals were harmed,) language, gore, abuse, nazis, blood, and torture.
All in all, an excellent, entertaining horror movie!
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