Ballad of Blood (2016)
* (out of 4)
It's the night after Halloween and Lenka (Carlotta Morelli), Jacopo (Gabriele Rossi), Duke (Edward Williams) and Elizabeth (Noemi Smorra) have been having sex and a wild time. Duke wakes up and discovers the dead body of Elizabeth but none of the three survivors know what happened. Pretty soon they try to uncover how Elizabeth ended up with a slashed throat but the tension begins to make all three crack.
CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST director Ruggero Deodato is back in a film that is being sold as a horror movie but it is in fact a murder mystery and sadly a very bad one at that. It's clear that Deodato was working with a very small budget and I must admit that the film looks a lot better and a lot more professional than 99% of the digital movies that I watch. With that said, there are some deadly flaws in the picture with one being the screenplay itself. This film was obviously inspired by the Meredith Kercher murder but that's a whole 'nother story.
The main issue with BALLAD OF BLOOD is the screenplay, which is just downright confusing at time and it never really grabs you and holds your interest. The fatal flaw of this film is that you've got three characters constantly talking, fighting and losing their minds and yet, as the viewer, you just don't care. You don't care about the characters. You don't care how Elizabeth died. You simply don't care about anything you're watching and it's impossible to stay focused on the film because there's just nothing there that makes you pay attention to what is happening.
Out of the cast I'd say Williams and Morelli come off the best. All of the actors are okay in their roles and I'd argue that they are good enough for a horror film but I don't think they're convincing enough for a murder mystery like this. Of course, the lack of anything to work with probably also played a factor. Deodato at least filled the movie with a lot of full frontal nudity as well as some bloody violence at times but this certainly didn't save the picture.
BALLAD OF BLOOD should have been so much better but sadly everything is lost in the screenplay and there's just not much in the film that actually works.
