Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids (2019) has some pretty asskicking moments
Written and Directed by Vincent Soberano
Starring Vincent Soberano, Sarah Chang, Monsour Del Rosario
Sometimes you need a nap before you fight not-vampires.
Some movies you watch just because they pop up on your list and you think "what the hell?" Some are trainwrecks of low budget mess, but a few are impressive by just how much the people that made them cared (looking at you, career of Jean-Claude Van Damme). Blood Hunters: Rise of the Hybrids floats somewhere in the middle of those movies.
Our story centers around Gabriella (Chang), a woman chasing members of a not-vampire race called "aswangs" that killed her family. She meets up with a demon hunting paramilitary unit led by Monte (Rosario) and joins their ranks as the aswang threat grows. When the demon hunter and human/aswang hybrid Bolo (Soberano) arrives, the fight rages from jungle to factory to elaborate aswang bunker base.
First, let's appreciate what this movie has to offer: it's pretty, kicks ass, and really wants to be better. Some of the shots here, often centered on Bolo including one where he meditates in a shaft of light in a broken down building, are quite lovely to look at. They remind me of video game cutscenes that were painstakingly put together by someone with a good eye for lighting.
The same can be said for the fights. Brutal knock-downs, Soberano has had some experience choreographing stunts. Even with most of the principal stars not action-oriented, they look pretty solid kicking ass. A lot of the effects are done in-camera, or at least it seems so, and give a lot of weight to the action. Even the makeup and special effects are pretty good when you compare them to other movies with a relative budget.
But pretty asskickings do not save every movie, however. As much as Soberano seems to care about how his movie and fights look, he seems to care less about dialog and overall plotting. Many of the lines are wooden and cliche, and the characters bounce around with little logic. At one point, our hero Gabriella fights a villain named Naga in the jungle, chases him, fights him again, then sits down to have a nap before waking up to fight him again. Nobody called a time out, the movie just needed her to be surprised so she sat down for a while to rest her eyes. Over and over the avenging family members pop up to kill the bad guys only to pause to reflect. Even when Gabriella meets Bolo, they have to fight and then have a heart to heart. Many of these more saccharine moments are not earned either by character choice or motivation. The acting reflects this with lines delivered with the same emotion as a summer camp production of Midsummer Night's Dream: the actors either did not care or understand what they were saying but had fun anyway trying to take it as seriously as possible.
All that being said, though, gather some friends together and check this out. The fights and the shots are pretty well done, it's clear this was an attempt at greatness that fell short, and the rest just makes the movie fun to laugh along with. A few beers in and everyone will be having a great time.