TRAIL OF BLOOD
This week I had the chance to watch the low budget zombie flick Trail of Blood: On the Trail (2015).
The story revolves around a couple, Brad and Ava. Brad has taken Ava to a weekend getaway at a rustic hotel to propose. The movie opens with the couple on a bike trail. Ava wants to go back to the hotel to the spa but Brad convinces her to ride along the trail with him. His plan is to propose to her when they reach the end of the trail.
As far as plots go that is about the size of it. The backdrop for this is that all along the trail other guests are being bitten by zombies and immediately turning into zombies themselves. The couple is completely oblivious to this zombie outbreak until they reach their destination. They then spend the remainder of the film fighting off the zombies.
I’ll stop here although there is really not much to spoil. I’ll begin with what I liked about this film even though it isn’t much. The film is set in one location — a wooded bike trail. The cinematography was exceptional especially given the budget. I also thought the sound quality was good and I watched this on my iPad. Unfortunately these two positives were all but ruined when the film moves to a dark tunnel for the last 40 minutes. Some of the zombie effects which were practical were also above par for low budget.
I’ll now get to what I did not like. The writing on this film was poor and that is being generous. It’s a bike ride with zombies biting people in the background. There is zero character development even with the two main characters. They are the only characters whose names you learn, yet this movie had a bigger cast than any movie I’ve ever seen. All but three characters are zombies. The climax, if it can be called that, was shot in that tunnel. This was unbelievably bad decision. Unfortunately, unless there was a light being shined directly on the action it was difficult if not impossible at times to make out what was happening.
After a movie about nothing and a climax I could barely see, the ending was infuriating and not in a good way. This is not a good film. However, the quality has not got anything to do with budget and everything to do with bad writing. There are plenty of low budget films that are no frills, shot in one location, with few actors that are well written. I can think of two you may want to check out: Hush (2016) and Last Shift (2014), both of which are streaming on Netflix.
I’d skip this mess.
