DVD review: Blood Night (2009)

Long Island, 1978: A young girl named Mary Mattock gruesomely murders her family with a hatchet and is locked away for life in Long Island s notorious Kings Park Psychiatric Center. Ten years later, Mary escapes from the asylum, leaving a grizzly trail of bodies and blood in her wake. Gunned down by the police, Mary meets her own demise outside the sanitorium walls. This incident gave birth to the legend of Mary Hatchet s walking ghost and the mischievous night named in honour of her death, BLOOD NIGHT! Stemming from this real-life legend, Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet tells the tale of a group of teenagers enjoying their annual Blood Night festivities, when they come face to face with the reality of this haunting legend. One by one, the teenagers begin to disappear and meet their fate. As the body count rises, so do the unanswered questions about their missing friends and the secrets of Mary s horrifying past. Is there more to this legend than the vengeful ghost of Mary Hatchet? And if so, who will survive to tell the terrifying tale? Blood Night is written by Elke Blasi and Frank Sabatella who also is the director. The acting is pretty bad, genre fans will recognize both Bill Moseley and Danielle Harris in the film but both have given better performances in other films. The camerawork and editing is pretty good but some scenes are too dark. Sadly the film is pretty boring for some reason, it fails to create any real suspense and fails to engage me as a viewer. It could be that I find it hard to symphatise with any of the character and is is more or less just waiting for the T & A and the killer to strike. But I should point out that Blood Night opens promisingly, the first ten minutes are the best. Gorehounds should  check this one out, there is plenty of practical gore make-up fx most of which looks pretty good. T & A fans will enjoy this one as it contains gratuitous nudity, there is several scenes of full frontal nudity and a few sex scenes where the the girls are topless.
This review is based upon the region 2 UK DVD release from High Fliers, it appears to be uncut. According to the BBFC the film passed with no cuts made.
Rating: 3½ out of 7. Blood Night is a decent slasher, check it out if you are a fan of slashers.  

/JL