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Home | Film Reviews | Film Review: Live Evil (2009)

Film Review: Live Evil (2009)

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SYNOPSIS:

A hunter dressed in black. This cowboy-hat-wearing samurai-sword-wielding Priest (Tim Thomerson) is on a quest for blood. Vampire blood. He’s out for revenge on a “clique” of four vampires who are traveling across country in search of “pure blood.”

REVIEW:

First off, I love Tim Thomerson. I think Jack Deth is one of the great B-movie badasses. So going in to “Live Evil” I was a bit skeptical, afraid that Thomerson may be past his prime. But I was wrong, dead wrong. Thomerson’s character The Priest, is an all new badass that comes to life like no other person could play him. And he isn’t all, I was quite surprised to see that this little low budget film, mostly shot on weekends, came together the way it did. Entertaining, scary, funny, and yes kids, it is very gory. And what’s even better, it’s gory in the old school special effects sort of way which made me incredibly happy to see. And we have director Jay Woelfel to thank for the madness.

Vampires are on the verge of becoming extinct. With humans polluting their blood with drugs, alcohol, disease, it’s hard for them to find someone who is pure. There are mutations in their evolution, making each unique or the blood undrinkable to them. Benedict (Mark Hengst) and Sydney (Asa Wallander) lead the rest of their group, Baxter (Gregory Lee Kenyon) and Yael (Eva Derrek) in a such for “pure blood”. They are relentless and will stop at nothing to get what they need. Hot on their tale is The Priest (Tim Thomerson), out for revenge and dedicated to stopping the threat like no one else can, with his samurai sword. As the vampires try and make their way to Los Angeles to search for “pure blood”, the Priest takes on a partner in Roxy (Kimberly Sanders), a tough talking woman who reluctantly joins up with him and may be a “pure blood” herself.

This movie wastes absolutely no time throwing us in to the mix. Within the first ten minutes we get to see massive amounts of blood, carnage, and an exciting car chase in the desert. I was immediately drawn into the world and the idea of vampires becoming extinct or mutated due to polluted blood is great and helps the film become unique itself. It is refreshing to see a vampire movie that isn’t trying to be the next “Twilight”. It’s a balls out gore fest that showcases the FX as much as it does it’s actors. Thomerson is believable and plays the Priest as a badass and with depth to the character since there is a reason he is out for revenge.

What I found really interesting was how sympathetically our villains are played. They are evil, without question (when you watch the film you will know what I mean), but they are portrayed from their point of view. We see their plight and their struggle to survive in a world that is becoming so polluted to them. Each of the actors give their character the right amount of life. There are points when the line between good and evil becomes so blurred that it raises the bar of intensity during the films last thirty minutes.

As solid as the films story is, as strong as the acting is, make no mistakes, this film is still silly fun in a way that makes horror fans giddy. Campy and fun in much the same way as “The Convent” when I first saw it. There is a lot of carnage in this film and it appeared to me that most, if not all, the effects were done practical and they looked amazing. If you like geysers of blood spraying when a head is severed, crushed skulls, burning flesh, it’s all here and there is a lot, and it never lets up. It was so refreshing to see a film that was so much fun, original, and well acted.

There are even cameos from genre favorites Ken Foree and Tiffany Shepis. I cannot stress enough how much fun this movie is. Maybe I am a bit biased since I saw the film with roughly 150 people and with Tim Thomerson in attendance. The crowd loved Tim, loved the film, and so did I.

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