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Mountain Biking Horror Film BLOOD TRAILS

8K views 27 replies 12 participants last post by  bbc  
#1 ·
#2 ·
BlackMountain said:
Hello Riders...

Just wanted to direct your attention to a horror film coming out on DVD March 13th called BLOOD TRAILS that features a young woman on a biking trip with her boyfriend who get terrorized by an insane man on a bike.

So yeah, Mountain Bike Horror. Who would have thunk?

http://www.blood-trails.com

http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Trails-...0M2E3G8/sr=8-1/qid=1172528725/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-7662298-8937251?ie=UTF8&s=dvd

Check it out!
Wonder where that was filmed?
 
#11 ·
Ok, so once I watched the trailer, and read the tagline for this film
(You can't outride death);
my buddy and I were wondering about the riding style of "Death"...You know, traditional skeleton head, black cloak, scythe... DEATH...

We were figuring that it's gotta be tough to keep the cloak out of the chain, and that carrying a scythe would require it to be telescoping w/ only the blade hanging out of the Camelbak...Full face helmet with a pic of himself on the top... you know, a skull....
We also kind of assumed that he's a Freerider, on a Specialized Demo 9, limited edition Death signature series... Of course the frame is painted matte black. Cause if he were a Freerider he'd be on a 45 lbs bike catching the roadies on their Titanium sub 17 lbs bikes and we know that would piss of the roadies...

Any thoughts???
Is Death a Freerider, XC, Downhiller, Urban Assault, Cross rider???

BTW - This is helping in the long run to make my 2007 Halloween costume... Thanks.
 
#12 ·
Death's Ride...

Man, that is a very good question.

I think the answer is that Death rides ALL terrain. And rides all terrain equally well. Now as for the scyth, who say's he has to carry it? It could be a part of his frame...

You nailed his helmet though. That is just brutal!

Your costume is going to rule.

Image
 
#16 ·
Just found this review!

"...which brings us neatly to Blood Trails, quite possibly the first horror movie set almost entirely on mountain bikes. And I'm not sure that's a good thing.

While the idea is pretty good, and lends itself well to the plentiful outdoor scenes, there's just far too much happening on the bikes. We get: lovers happily riding their bikes, lovers getting lost on their bikes, killer attacking lovers on his bike, girl fleeing on her bike, girl climbing hills carrying her bike, more chasing, more fleeing, more bikes… oh, you get the idea.

And as if the plethora of bike related scenes weren't enough, the directing style is distinctly MTV. When there's action, there are scene cuts every few seconds, when the pace is a little slower, we get cock-eyed camera angles and roaming hand-held footage."

HAH! Too Much Biking!

http://www.horrortalk.com/reviews/BloodTrails/bloodtrails.htm
 
#17 ·
New review I found for BLOOD TRAILS

Blood Trails
(Lionsgate Region 2 PAL DVD)
(2006)review by Blackgloves

"Anne (Rebecca Palmer) is a bike messenger who has a one night stand with a cop called Michael (Tom Frederic), after he pursues her around the city to write his phone number on her wrist. She wakes the next morning feeling both guilty for cheating on her boyfriend, and horrified by the nasty turn the previous night took -- with Michael getting violent and virtually assaulting her. When her boyfriend Chris (Ben Price) proposes a biking trip in the mountains, she sees it as an ideal opportunity to put the past behind her and re-ignite her failing relationship. This soon proves to be a horrendous mistake: a black-clad mountain biker turns up, kills her boyfriend, and pursues her around the woodlands and mountain trails, killing anyone else they come across. It soon turns out to be Michael - and he is going to finish what he started, unless Anne can outwit this twisted murderous stalker.

This simple and all too familiar set-up doesn't appear to promise much at first glance, but it soon becomes clear why this low-fi German production caused such a stir at the Dead by Dawn festival in Scotland last year. Director Robert Krause utilises the mini-DV technology to create a very effective Blair witch-style "docu-intimacy" around the tense proceedings. With a very small cast which, for most of the running time, revolves exclusively around Rebecca Palmer's astonishingly committed and intense performance, as well as that of her ice-cool stalker, played by Tom Frederic, the film relies on the clammy atmosphere created by judicious use of tight close-ups, and a nifty editing style. This is particularly apparent in the film's first kill sequence, which could have looked ridiculous if not for the tight, well-judged editing. Krause also displays a knack for crafting affecting compositions that use the towering fir trees and looming mountain peaks of the Austrian and German locations to frame Anne in shoots that emphasis the character's increasing isolation. The film's second act mostly turns on a series of stalking set pieces that may not be remotely original but are, nevertheless, executed with stylish efficiency and engender a sufficiently intense atmosphere of dreadful suspense.

The film is a fairly standard slasher-***-survivor flick for the fist two acts then; but the final act flirts with the torture motifs that are dominant in the horror genre at this time. After pitting the "strong heroine" against an apparently indomitable assailant for most of the picture, the film enters some disturbing territory when Michael catches up with our protagonist. It seems the desire to annihilate Anne's spirit and her will to survive is what drives him, and there are clear sexual overtones to the disturbing scenes that follow in the log cabin when Michael finally has Anne at his mercy. There's never any explicit imagery as such, but there is undoubtedly an unpleasant undercurrent to the whole business, and one must congratulate the two actors for the feelings of uncomfortableness they manage to give the viewer with their unflinching performances. The conclusion seems a tad abrupt, and to my eye, doesn't quite come off as it should - but the team behind this film have otherwise succeeded in crafting a chilling, clammy, taut little thriller that keeps one hooked right up to the final moments.

The DVD from Lion's Gate presents the film in anamoprhic widescreen. The transfer demonstrates the limitations of DV technology, although the film makers have attempted to use these to their own advantage to add to the grainy, grungy tenor cinematographer, Ralf Noack's work has given to the film. This mostly works, but there is, however, a weird "halo" effect that can pop up from time to time (sometimes even over people's faces!) and this can be quite distracting. The disc is a bare bones affair and features not so much as a trailer as an extra."

http://www.horrorview.com/Reviews/B/Blood_Trails.htm
 
#21 ·
riding bike paths in the mountains isn't mtnbkn...

for a low budget horror movie it was OK, but only just and nothing I would waste anyones time recommending they watch. (not that I was expecting much, it's just that horror movies and mountain bikes are up on my list of favorite things, so eventually I had to give in and watch it...)

(spoilers ahead)


Worst thing about the movie, to me, is their out riding at "Whistler" and they stop at a "barbed-wire" topped trail closure gate. Discuss how two mountain bikers died riding the trail last year, and that going another way won't be much of a ride. But the tough chick obviously has to ride past the gate, and the whipped little bf follows. After that set up you at least hope to see some cool mountain biking, but they end up riding SMOOTH forest roads 99.9% of the whole film...? WTF The last bit of riding she breaks onto some single track and 5 seconds later endo's and gets knocked out.

So then the other thing your waiting for in this film is when the killer starts offing people by swiping their vitals with chain rings and disc rotors. Well it only happens once, chain rings, and it's way more than underwhelming.

"This is particularly apparent in the film's first kill sequence, which could have looked ridiculous if not for the tight, well-judged editing."

Translation, they barely show what happens because it's ridiculous and even they know it, and it's so quick I missed it the first time because I was reading due to the film being a bit slow. So quickly I rewind to see what happens, and you get a splash of some dude about to jump, a camera behind the cranks view of the chain rings flying frisbee style towards their victim thats "evil-dead" cheesy, and then cut to the guy gargling blood with a ripped out throat. It's edited down to microseconds of cut scenes, and it's a big let down IMO.

Most of the riding scenes are boring, and I can see why this lead other reviewers to think there was just too much bike riding in the movie. It just wasn't edited into the movie very well, and since it was just smooth forest roads? bla...

And then the other thing that was really annoying was how much the leading actress kept grunting and screaming all the time. I guess she was trying to show how traumatized she was and how grueling of an ordeal she was going threw? But it was a bit overboard. On the other hand, they did at least pick an actress that could ride her bike, and looked like she could be a bike messenger/mountain biker. (and in fact she did actually ride the bike for at least the majority of riding scenes, course they were on smooth FR) Anyway, from me they do get mad props for actress choice as the rest of Hollywood generally picks some trendy hot chick who obviously can't walk and chew gum at the same time let alone balance on two wheels. (but as long as she has a sex tape or has been in rehab within the last 6 months she's perfect for the role)

OK, one last jibe, the killer's riding a FR/DH bike with a very cut down seatpost, she's a professional bike messenger riding a Trek EX?, (it seemed the frame stickers magically morphed into something else later in the film, hornet? on the TT but maybe that's what EX's are in Germany?) Anyway, she's on a 27 speed 4-5" travle bike and she needs to get away from this guy on his 9/18 speed 7+" travel slack head angled FR bike...

Couldn't she just have rode UP the hill???? :)