We humans think a lot of animals don't we? Often putting their well being above that of our loved ones and considering them part of the family. That aspect of animal loving I can understand. After all, your dog isn't going to tell you to pick your dirty clothes up off the floor five times, is he? And your goldfish isn't going to ignore you for a day because you forgot to get her special food in the weekly shop either. I digress. There is however, another side of this debate; a subversive side, some might say. There are renegade groups who will stop at nothing, with no laws getting in their way, to prevent what they see as cruelty to their beloved animals. What a good idea for a revenge horror.
Blooded begins as a documentary telling the story of a recent "incident" involving animal rights activists, The Real Animal League (RAL) and a group of deer hunting 20-somethings. The leader of the deer hunters, if you will, Lucus Bell, is a very outspoken man. We see in television news footage him proclaiming to a baying press pack that the recent change in the law will not stop him hunting.
This bravado undoubtedly riles his apposers so he decides to take off to the Scottish hills for a few days with some friends. Secluded Scottish hills, may I add. They spend the first day shooting then settle down to a few drinks and a bit of a feast, then off to bed. The next thing they know it's morning, but they have not woken up in their beds. Instead they're in their underwear, separated from each other, on a cold hillside. Now they're being hunted.
Shot in an untypical docudrama, mockumentary style, Blooded makes the genre more like a Crimewatch reconstruction with a second set of actors playing the parts of the documentary actors. This style makes it feel very real, fresh and just a little bit chilling. The violence is quite restrained for the subject matter as the theme meant they could've pushed it to torture porn levels but they didn't, and I think it is a better film for it.
These obsessive activist groups, with their deliberately terrorist-like approach sadly do nothing but detract our fury away from their cause and on to them. In the same vein Blooded cleverly managed to blur the line between what is morally right and wrong.
