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Blood Surf
Trimark // R // June 26, 2001
List Price: $24.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Trimark has seemingly found a niche for itself in the animal-attack market, releasing "Crocodile", "Octopus", "Spiders", "Shark Attack", and "Shark Attack 2" in the space of a few months. Their most recent entry is "Blood Surf", the wacky misadventures of a couple of surfers being taped for a TV special as they ride the waves in shark infested waters. Little do they know (snicker) that they're toying around in the home of a 31-foot-long crocodile that tips the scale at 3,000 lbs. The crocodile, briefly nicknamed Big Mick or somesuch, feasts first on the supporting cast, effectively trapping the two surfers, a smarmy television producer, and a gorgeous Australian sheila that lugs around the camera equipment. To keep the croc off-camera as much as possible, a couple other diversions pop up, including some sex-starved guerillas and a shades-of-Quint grizzled captain bent on killing the beast.
I was expecting a microbudget, laughably bad direct-to-video romp where a rubber crocodile munches unconvincingly on a small group of college students for 75 minutes. "Blood Surf" retreads the same path as countless similar films before it, but with a little more panache. Not all of the characters are bland crocodile chum, for one. Although it's a safe bet from the get-go that the arrogant producer is going to bitten in half, I felt a tinge of disappointment seeing some of these very pleasant and likeable folks wind up as red splotches in the ocean. The acting's a cut above most of these flicks, particularly from the leads. Some of the islanders ham it up a bit too much, and the dialogue occasionally dips into hokey territory, including such hokey lines as "this place is beautiful. You're beautiful" and "if only we had a hot air balloon...we could fly away...". Those lines may inspire groans, but they're delivered about as believably as humanly possible. Apparently very little time was spent perfecting the shark effects. The intercuts from shark footage to surfing shots isn't too bad, but when the effects team attempts to have sharks swimming towards the surfers, the result is laughably bad. The crocodile, a blend of CGI and mechanical effects, isn't really terrifying, and, as is often the case in these sorts of movies, he moves only as swiftly as the plot requires him to in any given scene. He can leap twenty feet out of the water to bite a guy's head off, but when the attractive female lead is being pulled along in the ocean in a life preserver, Salty has a tough time keeping up. I don't want to sound like I'm nitpicking, though. The movie never really drags, even though the crocodile doesn't get a decent appearance until almost halfway through. For t&a fans, two of the three prominently featured women get topless, with the cute native girl in a lengthy sex scene in a lagoon. Star Katie Fischer doesn't bare it all as she did in "Sirens", but to see her bounce around scantily-clad on a tropical island is entertaining in its own right. The first hour doesn't really have much gore -- just off-camera deaths and, at most, a small red gusher plopping out of the water. The gore factor increases considerably in the final half-hour, featuring a couple of nice, gruesome deaths. The character that's ripped in two while the torso-half curses the crocodile is alone worth the price of admission. Though "Blood Surf" doesn't offer nearly the same level of excitement and tension as "Komodo", there is enough of each to maintain interest for its hour and a half runtime. "Blood Surf" is a reasonably entertaining movie, and anyone who relishes the thought of a giant crocodile eating a bunch of people will probably find this disc worth a purchase.
Video: Oodles of DVD retail sites list "Blood Surf" as full-frame, but the 16x9-enabled will be giddy with joy that this disc actually has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Though its low-budget origins infrequently bob to the surface in the form of softness, inconsistently balanced colors, grainy stock footage, and hazy underwater sequences, it's unlikely that any of these flaws can be attributed to the transfer itself. The crisp image overall is quite spiffy, full of the lush colors one would expect from such a tropical locale. Black levels are solid, even in the handful of dimly-lit night sequences. Detail seems to vary somewhat, though it's generally quite strong. There are no noticeable print flaws, and the amount of dust and assorted specks is well within reasonable levels. My toes didn't curl with excitement, but I was very pleased with the video overall.
Audio: The music used throughout "Blood Surf", which ranges from traditional horror cues to peppy surf rock, sports a phenomenal low-end punch and is certainly the highlight of this above-average Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. There are a few surround effects, though the bulk of the workout the rears get on this disc comes in the form of music and ambiance. Some of this usage is extremely effective, and one sequence that immediately springs to mind is when one of our surfer heroes is scouring the wreckage of a ship for explosives. The creaking of wood as the coming tide splashes against it in this scene stands out as one of the most impressive uses of every channel that I can recall offhand. It might seem like a silly thing to rant on about, but there are several portions of this movie with such subtle yet exceptionally well-done audio noodlings. Dialogue by and large is clear and discernable, though this too varies ever-so-slightly. Another minor imperfection occurs on a rickety boat during a 'rescue' by some island natives. In this sequence, the surrounds abruptly and unnaturally kick in a half-second or so too late. I could be imagining that, though. Who knows? Regardless, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio on "Blood Surf" is mighty impressive, particularly from such a low budget film.
Supplements: Around seven and a half minutes of bonus footage is included, alternating between missteps by the actors and shots that linger far too long on the rubbery croc. The other extra is a storyboard feature in four of the movie's 24 chapters that can be activated by whacking the Angle button on your remote. As with every Trimark disc I've seen to date, there are "hidden" trailers that can be displayed by selecting the Trimark logo on the main menu. Among these is a rather nice full-frame trailer for "Blood Surf".
Conclusion: "Blood Surf" was a pleasant surprise, standing proudly alongside "Komodo" as one of the more memorable animal-attack flicks of the past few years. This guilty pleasure outclasses the more inept entries in one of my favorite horror sub-genres, despite its goofy effects and relatively little gore. Recommended.
I was expecting a microbudget, laughably bad direct-to-video romp where a rubber crocodile munches unconvincingly on a small group of college students for 75 minutes. "Blood Surf" retreads the same path as countless similar films before it, but with a little more panache. Not all of the characters are bland crocodile chum, for one. Although it's a safe bet from the get-go that the arrogant producer is going to bitten in half, I felt a tinge of disappointment seeing some of these very pleasant and likeable folks wind up as red splotches in the ocean. The acting's a cut above most of these flicks, particularly from the leads. Some of the islanders ham it up a bit too much, and the dialogue occasionally dips into hokey territory, including such hokey lines as "this place is beautiful. You're beautiful" and "if only we had a hot air balloon...we could fly away...". Those lines may inspire groans, but they're delivered about as believably as humanly possible. Apparently very little time was spent perfecting the shark effects. The intercuts from shark footage to surfing shots isn't too bad, but when the effects team attempts to have sharks swimming towards the surfers, the result is laughably bad. The crocodile, a blend of CGI and mechanical effects, isn't really terrifying, and, as is often the case in these sorts of movies, he moves only as swiftly as the plot requires him to in any given scene. He can leap twenty feet out of the water to bite a guy's head off, but when the attractive female lead is being pulled along in the ocean in a life preserver, Salty has a tough time keeping up. I don't want to sound like I'm nitpicking, though. The movie never really drags, even though the crocodile doesn't get a decent appearance until almost halfway through. For t&a fans, two of the three prominently featured women get topless, with the cute native girl in a lengthy sex scene in a lagoon. Star Katie Fischer doesn't bare it all as she did in "Sirens", but to see her bounce around scantily-clad on a tropical island is entertaining in its own right. The first hour doesn't really have much gore -- just off-camera deaths and, at most, a small red gusher plopping out of the water. The gore factor increases considerably in the final half-hour, featuring a couple of nice, gruesome deaths. The character that's ripped in two while the torso-half curses the crocodile is alone worth the price of admission. Though "Blood Surf" doesn't offer nearly the same level of excitement and tension as "Komodo", there is enough of each to maintain interest for its hour and a half runtime. "Blood Surf" is a reasonably entertaining movie, and anyone who relishes the thought of a giant crocodile eating a bunch of people will probably find this disc worth a purchase.
Video: Oodles of DVD retail sites list "Blood Surf" as full-frame, but the 16x9-enabled will be giddy with joy that this disc actually has an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is enhanced for widescreen televisions. Though its low-budget origins infrequently bob to the surface in the form of softness, inconsistently balanced colors, grainy stock footage, and hazy underwater sequences, it's unlikely that any of these flaws can be attributed to the transfer itself. The crisp image overall is quite spiffy, full of the lush colors one would expect from such a tropical locale. Black levels are solid, even in the handful of dimly-lit night sequences. Detail seems to vary somewhat, though it's generally quite strong. There are no noticeable print flaws, and the amount of dust and assorted specks is well within reasonable levels. My toes didn't curl with excitement, but I was very pleased with the video overall.
Audio: The music used throughout "Blood Surf", which ranges from traditional horror cues to peppy surf rock, sports a phenomenal low-end punch and is certainly the highlight of this above-average Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. There are a few surround effects, though the bulk of the workout the rears get on this disc comes in the form of music and ambiance. Some of this usage is extremely effective, and one sequence that immediately springs to mind is when one of our surfer heroes is scouring the wreckage of a ship for explosives. The creaking of wood as the coming tide splashes against it in this scene stands out as one of the most impressive uses of every channel that I can recall offhand. It might seem like a silly thing to rant on about, but there are several portions of this movie with such subtle yet exceptionally well-done audio noodlings. Dialogue by and large is clear and discernable, though this too varies ever-so-slightly. Another minor imperfection occurs on a rickety boat during a 'rescue' by some island natives. In this sequence, the surrounds abruptly and unnaturally kick in a half-second or so too late. I could be imagining that, though. Who knows? Regardless, the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio on "Blood Surf" is mighty impressive, particularly from such a low budget film.
Supplements: Around seven and a half minutes of bonus footage is included, alternating between missteps by the actors and shots that linger far too long on the rubbery croc. The other extra is a storyboard feature in four of the movie's 24 chapters that can be activated by whacking the Angle button on your remote. As with every Trimark disc I've seen to date, there are "hidden" trailers that can be displayed by selecting the Trimark logo on the main menu. Among these is a rather nice full-frame trailer for "Blood Surf".
Conclusion: "Blood Surf" was a pleasant surprise, standing proudly alongside "Komodo" as one of the more memorable animal-attack flicks of the past few years. This guilty pleasure outclasses the more inept entries in one of my favorite horror sub-genres, despite its goofy effects and relatively little gore. Recommended.
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