BLOOD Barn is a cabin-in-the-woods-themed horror movie that wears its influences very evidently on its bloodstained sleeve.
Gabriel Bernini’s slasher comedy is a throwback to those bargain-basement eighties rental video schlockers where horny teens get more than they bargain for when they disappear into nature for some alcohol-fuelled shenanigans.
Sam Raimi’s 1981 classic The Evil Dead is the most obvious source of inspiration for this creature feature with a demonic possession twist. In fact, the first hour feels like a feverish homage to Raimi’s horror great with the imprint of such classics as The Burning, The Slumber Party Massacre, Blood Lake, Carrie, and Black Christmas also evident throughout.
Set in the summer of 1985, we follow demure camp counsellor Josie (Lena Redford), who gathers her six closest friends for a final weekend at her family’s secluded barn before they part ways for college. However, soon after they arrive at their diabolical love shack, we quickly get the sense that Josie’s country cousins probably have more in common with the Sawyer clan out of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than they do The Beverly Hillbillies.
Buried secrets from her family’s past soon start to emerge as supernatural malevolent spirits possess her friends and prove hellbent on revenge for disturbing their hellish slumber.
Blood Barn is retro splatter mayhem with cheesy effects aplenty, straight out of the 1970s terror toolbox. The cast are your by the numbers loudmouthed and crude jocks, dim-witted bimbos as well as your token all-round good guy whose job it is to keep our ‘final girl’ safe until the big showdown.
For the first 70-minutes, Blood Barn has all the makings of a charmingly formulaic soft-focus lensed low-budget classic but it gets distracted in the last 20 minutes and totally gives up the ghost.
For the most part, this is a really fun ride, but its outhouse throwback thrills don’t last and leaves us with a big ugly mess to clean up.
(3/5)