Blood Barn
Screens Friday, October 17 at 8:30pm
by Brooklyn Ewing
I have always wondered what it felt like to see 1981’s The Evil Dead before it was released to the world, and now I kind of feel like I do thanks to Gabriel Bernini’s first feature film, Blood Barn.
Blood Barn isn’t perfect, or super polished, like most new horror making its way onto the screen. Honestly, it doesn’t need to be because it’s so creative, and feels like something special you’d pull from the shelf in a mom and pop video store in 1983 because the box art was so cool.
In the film, a group of friends find themselves traveling to an old farmhouse to have some fun when they accidentally conjure up some old demons, and all hell breaks loose. I almost lost my mind when I saw Rachel, played by Euphoria actress Chloe Cherry, show up in the car ride. She’s just an absolute vibe in everything she does. The other cast members fit right in and create such a cool group of quirky, vintage friends that I want to hang out with.
This throw back to 70s and early 80s, camp horror uses so many out-of-the-box cinematic tricks to create their vintage atmosphere on a shoe string budget. I found myself wanting to immediately sit down with Bernini and the team to ask how they pulled off so many of the shots. The cinematography in the opening alone fills me with nostalgia, and makes me feel like a kid again sneaking out to the living room to watch a movie on USA Up All Night with Rhonda Shear and, the late, Gilbert Gottfried.
Blood Barn oozes vibes from classics like The Evil Dead, Friday the 13th, Night of the Demons, and even has small nods to things like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Prom Night, New Year’s Evil, Blood Lake and Sleepaway Camp.
Don’t go into Blood Barn expecting to see a perfectly written studio film. It’s not that. This movie celebrates creative indie filmmaking from a bygone era at its best. Have some fun with this one. It’s packed with all the nostalgia you can handle, and all the old school makeup FX that an 80s horror kid could dream of.
Old school horror fans, this one’s for you.
Elvira would give it 5 stars, so I will too.
