Imagine that your car has broken down and now you have to ask your neighbor for a lift. Your neighbor is obnoxious but they are your only option to get to work on time. The problem is that your neighbor has two unbearable children, which is obvious because they were raised by the same obnoxious person, and you have to ride in the back seat with them while they scream, kick and throw toys at you. Would you rather find another solution putting your job at risk or would you take the opportunities that are presented to you? With a little of this idea the plot for Blood Vessel got developed—only that in the film the enemy is members of the Nazi party.

Set during the end of WWII, a group of surviving strangers from different countries is stranded on a lifeboat in the ocean before finding a Nazi ship and decides to board it risking their lives. Fortunately, the ship is unmanned and they decide to explore it to see what they can find for their survival but they’ll realize that the crew did not abandon the ship but perished in it. What happened to the crew and is it still on board?

Blood Vessel isn’t flawless but it’s decent.  It has such a high level of entertainment that it forces you to keep your eyes glued to the screen throughout the entire film. At no time will you feel the need to look at your phone or roll your eyes to an ironic situation thanks to the fluidity of the dialogue and the excellent interaction between the characters. The situation in which the story is set is probably not new but the product is good enough. From the beginning, the story starts by leaps and bounds but is slowed during the characters’ exploration of the ship and eventually takes off again when facing off the antagonists. It does leave some questions from the events happening at the beginning of the film but the plot holes do not affect the rest of the film as these events are fillers.

While the story is simple, there could’ve been more elements added to it. By now, there has been several sources reporting on theories about the Third Reich’s obsession with occultism and there has been so much influence of it on other films that handle similar plots. If there had been a new element added to those that have already been used in other stories, the movie would’ve been sublime. I’m not saying it’s bad but it would’ve been better than watching a mix of Overlord with [REC]4: Apocalypse.

Most of the setting is excellent. The visual effects, from the digital ones to the physical ones, are very well crafted and lead you to give credibility to the bloodshed that happens during the third act. The soundtrack works wonders to create and maintain suspense in the most obscure scenes. However, the audio mix for the sound effects is loud without a purpose to the point it becomes annoying if you’re using headphones to listen— most of the jump scares come from some random background noise that doesn’t build up to the suspense of the film, it’s just there.

Blood Vessel lacks substance in several areas but it is firm in other things such as suspense, blood, comedy and action. It’s a film far from being picture perfect but it’s entertaining enough to satisfy the bloodsucking creature inside of you.

7 OUT OF 10 CREEPY VICTORIAN DOLLS