I've heard of Canuxploitation and Ausploitation - but I'd never heard of Romaniexploitation before 'Anaconda III' and 'Anaconda IV'!
As with its predecessor, 'Trail of Blood' is a much more gory movie than the original. Yet, it is not a movie I would consider a slasher as much as I would consider a technothriller. It makes good use of atmospheric horror throughout to keep the tension flowing and the viewer's attention. I would say 'Trail of Blood' has more in common with the original 'Jurassic Park' than it does with the 1997 'Anaconda'.
I wasn't particularly impressed with 'The Hunt For the Blood Orchid', so I wasn't expecting much for this one. It was the last DVD out of the four-disc set I bought for cheap, and I had procrastinated getting to it. But of course, it's when our expectations are lowest are we most easily impressed!
Like in 'The Hunt for the Blood Orchid', 'Trail of Blood' created its antagonist serpents on the computer, with little or no physical props - which is for me always a disappointment. However, compared with its predecessor, the CGI in this one was much more believable. The snake was usually blended seamlessly into the set and didn't look so cartoony as before.
The human side of the story in 'Trail of Blood' was much more developed too than in 'The Hunt for the Blood Orchid'. We see the return of Amanda, the classic farm-gal-next-door whose personality is not an act: she grew up in Camrose in my home province of Alberta (so I am biased in her favour for this) - combined with a sprinkle of Lara Croft on top.
The Romanian extras in the movie had that slimy charisma about them that made them excellent bad-guys. I fell in love with Heather almost instantly (I noticed her remarkable resemblance to the curler Anna Hasselborg!), and I'm happy that she lived. Alex was a pretty likeable character, and was probably the most relatable for the audience, being sort of the bewildered bystander in most of the character interactions. Scott was the only character I didn't much like; his overly-intense personality annoyed me.
Even though John Rhys-Davies was the only big name in the movie, I feel that the storyline was developed enough that he didn't carry the movie all himself.
The main thing I disliked about the movie was the somewhat-unrealistic durability of the characters dealing with wounds. We had our one guy walk back to camp with one arm gone at the elbow, and survived until being shot. We had our other character shot at point-blank range in the chest with a handgun, who not only survived but managed to stay standing and sentient. He found the strength to brawl with another character who had been stuck in the chest with a pocket knife on the outside of a moving vehicle. Meanwhile, another character was shot in the arm with a handgun while driving, and managed to stay conscious and sentient enough to hand the wheel over to one of her passengers.
Apart from that, what more do you want from this that you folks give it a 2.9 average?? (Meaning, many of you have voted it even lower) It's a direct-to-video cash-grab sequel with a relatively obscure Canadian lead, extras whose first language was mostly one other than English, and probably all put together on a very limited budget. Given all of those challenges, I think they did the best with what they had. Definitely my 2nd-favourite in the franchise after the original.
As with its predecessor, 'Trail of Blood' is a much more gory movie than the original. Yet, it is not a movie I would consider a slasher as much as I would consider a technothriller. It makes good use of atmospheric horror throughout to keep the tension flowing and the viewer's attention. I would say 'Trail of Blood' has more in common with the original 'Jurassic Park' than it does with the 1997 'Anaconda'.
I wasn't particularly impressed with 'The Hunt For the Blood Orchid', so I wasn't expecting much for this one. It was the last DVD out of the four-disc set I bought for cheap, and I had procrastinated getting to it. But of course, it's when our expectations are lowest are we most easily impressed!
Like in 'The Hunt for the Blood Orchid', 'Trail of Blood' created its antagonist serpents on the computer, with little or no physical props - which is for me always a disappointment. However, compared with its predecessor, the CGI in this one was much more believable. The snake was usually blended seamlessly into the set and didn't look so cartoony as before.
The human side of the story in 'Trail of Blood' was much more developed too than in 'The Hunt for the Blood Orchid'. We see the return of Amanda, the classic farm-gal-next-door whose personality is not an act: she grew up in Camrose in my home province of Alberta (so I am biased in her favour for this) - combined with a sprinkle of Lara Croft on top.
The Romanian extras in the movie had that slimy charisma about them that made them excellent bad-guys. I fell in love with Heather almost instantly (I noticed her remarkable resemblance to the curler Anna Hasselborg!), and I'm happy that she lived. Alex was a pretty likeable character, and was probably the most relatable for the audience, being sort of the bewildered bystander in most of the character interactions. Scott was the only character I didn't much like; his overly-intense personality annoyed me.
Even though John Rhys-Davies was the only big name in the movie, I feel that the storyline was developed enough that he didn't carry the movie all himself.
The main thing I disliked about the movie was the somewhat-unrealistic durability of the characters dealing with wounds. We had our one guy walk back to camp with one arm gone at the elbow, and survived until being shot. We had our other character shot at point-blank range in the chest with a handgun, who not only survived but managed to stay standing and sentient. He found the strength to brawl with another character who had been stuck in the chest with a pocket knife on the outside of a moving vehicle. Meanwhile, another character was shot in the arm with a handgun while driving, and managed to stay conscious and sentient enough to hand the wheel over to one of her passengers.
Apart from that, what more do you want from this that you folks give it a 2.9 average?? (Meaning, many of you have voted it even lower) It's a direct-to-video cash-grab sequel with a relatively obscure Canadian lead, extras whose first language was mostly one other than English, and probably all put together on a very limited budget. Given all of those challenges, I think they did the best with what they had. Definitely my 2nd-favourite in the franchise after the original.