With the accolades of hate thrown onto his first two video game adaptations, House Of The Dead and Alone In The Dark, notorious filmmaker Uwe Boll has fast become one of the most despised director's in the industry today. Some how and for some reason, however, his films continue to be profitable and the man keeps working and with BloodRayne, his latest video game adaptation, he even managed to score an Oscar winner to play a fairly important part. The fates truly shine upon you, Uwe, and for this, bad movie fans the world over remain ever thankful.

The story centers around a vampire-human half-breed, referred to in the film as a dhampir, named Rayne (Kristanna Lokken of Terminator 3) who, when we first meet her, is being used as a circus freak. We soon learn that the head of the evil vampires, Kagan (Sir Ben Kingsley of Ghandi!!) killed her mother and that her life has kind of sucked ever since. When, in a fit of blood lust, Rayne escapes from the circus she runs off into the night to finally take solace at a monastery where, after talking shop with a monk (Udo Kier of Blood For Dracula) she absorbs a sacred eyeball that is one of three mystic talismans desired by Kagan and his henchmen, Domastir (William Sanderson of House Of The Dead) and Elrich (Billy Zane of Titanic).

Eventually Rayne meets up with a band of fighters lead by Vladmir (Michael Madson of Reservoir Dogs) and his two friends, Katarin (Michelle Rodriguez of Resident Evil) and Sebastian (Matthew Davis who starred alongside Steven Seagal in Into The Sun). We know these guys hate vampires because we've just seen them attack Leonid (Meat Loaf of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a decadent bloodsucker with a taste for real, live Romanian hookers. After she proves that she means them know harm and shares their cause, they take her in and train her to fight evil. She proves to be a natural, which causes Katarin to become a little jealous of her and which causes Sebastian to hump her (gratuitous topless nudity alert)! After the soap operatics play out, it's time to bring the fight to Kagan and so our intrepid warriors head off to face him on his home turf, but there's more going on under the surface than meets the eye and there is a traitor in their midst.

As an adaptation of the video game, BloodRayne fails pretty miserably because it changes too many character traits in the lead and completely disregards important plot points in the source material. As a horror movie, BloodRayne also fails pretty miserably because it just isn't scary or even particularly suspenseful. When all things are seriously considered, BloodRayne is in fact a pretty bad film full of predictable characters, obvious plot twists, and dialogue that sounds like it was written by a twelve year old boy. But you know what? This reviewer had a blast with the film. Keep your expectations in check and know going in that this is a Uwe Boll film and don't start the movie expecting a serious piece of art and you might come away pleasantly surprised by the exploitative elements that feel like a throw back to the gore soaked films of the past. The movie has a very retro feel and the special effects from German splatter wunderkid Olaf Ittenbach (he of Premutos fame) really drive that home. There is a fair bit of CGI used in the film but not nearly so much as you'd think and the vast majority of the kills, or at least the good ones, are done the old fashioned way which was really nice to see. There's also the nekkid Kristanna Lokken factor, which cannot be overlooked. Her love scene with Davis isn't in the least bit erotic but she does shed her clothes to 'hop on pop' for a scene that goes on for a ridiculously long time involving sexual positions that are probably not physically possible for most people.

All of this cinematic nonsense is set to a really odd synth-pop score that sounds like it was recorded about twenty years ago by an ex-member of Tangerine Dream. It feels completely out of place, but at the same time, with Boll's 'everything but the kitchen sink' approach to this project, maybe it isn't so awkward after all. Half the fun of this one comes from thinking about the logic behind certain directorial decisions and questioning why they were made – the biggest 'huh' obviously coming from the film's ending. It's also a lot of fun to see Ben Kingsley simply sleepwalk through the film and to see Michael Madsen trying his damnedest to look like he knows what is happening around him. All of this while Lokken chops peoples heads off, screams a lot, and generally overacts.

BloodRayne is a train wreck, but it sure is a fun one.

So what does this un-rated director's cut add that wasn't in the theatrical version of the film? Well, it's been a while since this reviewer has seen the R-rated cut, but going by memory, it's mostly gore – and there's a fair bit of it put back in. Pay attention during almost all of the fight scenes and the strange ending where Rayne has her flashback and watch the chunks fly and the arterial spray paint the screen a bloody, crimson red. Olaf Ittenbach's early 'gore film' roots shine through in this scene and it's pretty fun stuff. While some might argue that additional splatter doesn't make the movie any better, there's enough of it here that thankfully that is not the case – with BloodRayne, the additional gore effects do make the movie better. It's still a bad film, please note that, but it's improved in this form and more enjoyable on a so-bad-it's-good level because of it.

Video:

The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer has been matted down from the original 2.35.1 widescreen theatrical aspect ratio but thankfully the compositions aren't too compromised by this unusual choice. BloodRayne was not a super high budget movie and it lacks some of the gloss of similar films like, say for example, Underworld but the quality of the image on this DVD is pretty decent. There's some grain in spots and a little bit of mpeg compression in a few of the darker scenes but other than that the picture is decent, even when it's not perfect. Flesh tones look good though sometimes the colors look just a tad on the flat side. There isn't any print damage to report on but there is some slight edge enhancement in a few scenes that is difficult to overlook. For a recent film, this movie should have looked a little better than it does on this DVD but this is still a decent transfer, aspect ratio issues aside.