It’s In The Blood [DVD]



Director: Scooter Downey



Cast: Lance Henricksen, Sean Elliot



Release Date: Now Available on DVD



A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 7/10

Disc Rating: 7/10

Plot Summary:

When a father and son become stranded in the wild, they must confront the horrors of their past to escape with their lives.

‘It’s In The Blood’ follows the story of a young man who has returned home to visit his father following the deterioration of their relationship as a result of a tragic incident. As the two begin their trek into the middle of the wilderness, the father sees an unnatural creature, and in a moment of panic becomes seriously injured. Now father and son are stuck in the wilderness, unable to get back, while deteriorating both physically and mentally. Now all sorts of strange creatures and images are beginning to appear to them, as well as thoughts of the tragic incident that befell them some time ago. But the real question is what is real, and what is simply a hallucination? Either way, it’s going to be a struggle to make it back to civilization alive, and it will require an estranged father and son to work together and put their differences aside.

The film features a noteworthy performance by Lance Henricksen, and Sean Elliot (who also co-wrote) also does an impressive job as his son. The film is mildly confusing for a period of time because it moves in a pattern in which you are not quite certain what is occurring and has occurred. Shortly, the flashbacks to the tragic incident merge with their current predicament and things start to fall into place. For a low budget horror film, this one is definitely one of the more impressive titles in recent memory. The budget is obviously minimal, but the story truly doesn’t need anything else to be properly represented. The setting is simplistic, while the story and the characters complex, and it truly makes for an intense, emotional and overall disturbing tale about both the struggle to survive what one is thrown into, while additionally being forced to cope with events that have been pushed away deep down inside, and are still unresolved emotionally. There is more than meets the eye to every aspect of the story, and it’s a truly powerful film.

For those horror/thriller fans out there ‘It’s In The Blood’ is certainly a film that you will likely have no regrets in spending the time to watch, and I would recommend giving it a shot.

VIDEO:

The video is presented in an anamorphic 16×9 friendly widescreen transfer featuring a 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. For a low budget film such as this, the video quality on the DVD is actually quite impressive. Some color and richness seem to be vacant from the film, but as you start to get into the vibe of the film it begins to seem as if this was the way the film was shot and intended. The faded colors and overall rawness truly give it a properly eerie vibe that I’ve come to the conclusion is exactly what the filmmakers likely intended. When looking at the video in this regard, it is quite well done, and looked quite impressive on my 46” HDTV.

AUDIO:

The audio featured on the DVD release is a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, though when the disc is put in, the receiver and player read it as Dolby Digital 5.0 for some reason, and no LFE is present in the audio track as noted. While this may be an annoyance for some, it really didn’t hurt the audio too badly. All 5 of the speakers really do get a nice workout when things start to get creepy, and it really does an impressive job of throwing you into the mix and contributing to the feeling that you are experiencing this whole ordeal along with these two to some extent. Aside from the missing LFE and .1 in the 5.1 soundtrack, the audio is quite nice.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Unfortunately the special features are the one element of this DVD that is lacking. No special features are included on the DVD release.

Film Rating: 7/10

Disc Rating: 7/10

‘It’s In The Blood’ Is Now Available On DVD From Monarch Home Entertainment.