Blood Fest Blu-ray Review

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Deconstructionist Horror With Laughs

What a magnificent love letter to horror films and the tropes that keep the genre alive. Blood Fest is the most engaging horror and comedy hybrid seen in years. It is a fun, clever movie that enjoys deconstructing horror tropes without mocking the genre.

Taking inspiration from films such as Scream and The Cabin In The Woods, not to mention the criminally underrated Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Blood Fest’s fresh script and killer casting make it a perfect post-modern frightfest. It’s perfect Halloween viewing, if you are in the mood for a little humor mixed together with outlandish blood and gore.

Produced by Rooster Teeth, the outfit best known for web animation like RWBY and Red vs. Blue, this is the smartest entertainment from them yet in the film industry. It’s easily their most polished. Writer and director Owen Egerton has fashioned a tongue-in-cheek horror movie about the fans that love them, and the cliches that fuel horror. There is even a great cameo by Zachary Levi of Chuck and Shazam fame playing himself.

Dax (Robbie Kay) is a die-hard horror fan defying his father to attend the event of the year, the horror festival known as Blood Fest. His friends Krill and Sam (Seychelle Gabriel) tag along, expecting a bloody good time. Dax gets in with the help of Ashley (Barbara Dunkelman), a ditzy blonde actress dating some no-name horror director. It’s a rag-tag group of friends, making them likable protagonists. Dax works at the local video store with Sam, a true horror geek.

It’s definitely been crafted by real horror fans that know and love the movies

What Dax and his friends will find at Blood Fest is a waking nightmare that never seems to end for the group. The whole experience turns into a deadly trap for the festival goers. Everyone is a target as blood is spilled everywhere and killers roam the grounds. Vampires, killer clowns, zombies, slashers and more are included. Blood Fest has been set up in an enclosed park cut off from the outside world, featuring horror movie creations come to life. The group of friends must band together and use their knowledge of horror films to survive the deadly horror festival.

Blood Fest as a movie embraces all the cheesy aspects of the horror genre, without ever dipping into mockery. It’s definitely been crafted by real horror fans that know and love the movies. There’s a whole sub-plot about a movie franchise in this universe called “The Arborist.” It is a sly spoof of slashers like Friday The 13th.

A lot of work has gone into making the world of Blood Fest seem real, from the horror spoofs, to the almost pitch-perfect plot twists. There is even some thorough character development along the way that makes you love these characters. Everything gets tied together in the end.

Outside of a few convenient reveals, Blood Fest is a slick, winning horror movie with fun characters and a real sense of humor.

Video

Cinedigm distributes Blood Fest on Blu-ray for Rooster Teeth. That animation background shows up in the excellent VFX and effects in the movie. Blood Fest has fairly nice picture quality for an independent horror production. The 1080P video is presented at the movie’s original theatrical aspect ratio in 2.35:1. The main feature runs 92 minutes, encoded in satisfactory AVC on a BD-25.

The video itself has pin-sharp dimensionality and excellent clarity. Shadow delineation remains well above average. Consistently solid contrast and a saturated color palette render pleasing Hi-Def video.

Blood Fest doesn’t shout with extraordinary resolution or fantastic cinematography. This is clean, crisp picture quality in a pristine presentation. Black levels remain strong except in a few of the more dramatic and darker scenes.

Expect a solid, more-than-serviceable Blu-ray experience worth seeing with definite high-definition attributes.

Audio

Blood Fest comes with an adequate 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack. Dynamics are fairly crisp with intelligible dialogue throughout the main feature. The sound design and mix are conservative for a horror film.

Most of the action is limited to the front soundstage. Some immersion leads to a few excellent scenes of discrete audio and real impact. The music is nicely integrated with the score and sound effects.

Optional English SDH subtitles appear in a white font. They remain inside the widescreen presentation at all times.

Extras

Blood Fest comes in a Blu-ray and DVD combo set. The Blu-ray is coded for all regions.

The Art and Design of Blood Fest (01:31 in HD) – A brief featurette highlighting the production art.

Blood Fest VFX Breakdown (03:10 in HD) – An interesting featurette that visually shows you the differences between the raw footage and how the insertion of VFX changes the final appearance. There is stuff going on in the background you wouldn’t think were digitally fixed or inserted.

“Gus Fest” (02:58 in HD) – An entertaining, comedic short about a character named Gus that happened to show up late to Blood Fest and missed out on everything going on in the movie.

Slashed Scenes (All in HD) – Six separate deleted scenes, none running longer than a minute, are offered up. This is fairly tepid deleted content, mostly short quips or bridging moments.

Filmmakers’ Audio Commentary – This feature-length group commentary is lively and fun. Participants include actress Barbara Dunkelman, Director Owen Egerton, and a couple of other crew members. Be warned they spoil the ending to Avengers: Infinity War. It’s a freewheeling, loose discussion that is worth hearing.

Blood Fest Theatrical Trailer (01:43 in HD)

Blood Fest Teaser (00:59 in HD)

Various Trailers (All in HD) – The following promos and trailers for other Rooster Teeth productions precede the main menu: Lazer Team (01:01), Gen: Lock (01:15), Achievement Haunter: Season One (00:30)

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray release was provided to us for review by the studio. For information on how we handle all review material, please visit our about us page to learn more about DoBlu’s editorial policies.

The 15 unaltered images below have been taken directly from the actual Blu-ray. For an additional 17 screenshots taken from Blood Fest, early access to all screens (plus the 17,000+ already in our library) in full resolution, dozens of exclusive 4K UHD reviews and other goodies, support us on Patreon.