Written and directed by Micah Delhauer, a witch with a foul mouth and a hangover is the only hope for a group of strangers when their town is invaded by the forces of Hell. Starring: Frances Parsons, Laura Elizabeth Delhauer, Alen Kolenovic, Natalie Beisner, Joe Salling, Michael Minto and Victoria De Mare.
To pull off a film like this, on a low budget, with limited locations and little room for any embellishments, is not an easy thing, but Micah Delhauer does it well with Blood Magick. Delhauer makes the most of those limitations, leaning into them, rather than trying to stretch them. Crafting a convincing fantasy-horror story within one location, with minimal effects and focusing on the characters. It’s great work, the directorial style is strong and keeps things moving, and it’s well supported by Delhauer’s work in the editing room.
A key to making Blood Magick work is personality, kicking things off with Aisling (Frances Parsons) and her unapologetic, nonchalant attitude was a great idea. She’s a fantastic character who gives you plenty of reason to want to follow her on her misadventures, drunkenly stumbling her way through the supernatural. Putting her together with the rest of the key cast works really well, giving her a leader role to this fearful bunch, it’s a bit like a Dawn of the Dead survival group.
All of the performances from that core ensemble are surprisingly genuine, and that’s another key element to Blood Magick’s success. They don’t come across as overly hysterical or melodramatic, they actually manage to create connections with one another, and even bring some emotion to the table. Bringing those layers through in the writing and crafting good dialogue really helps to sell the film, to make the characters feel more real, as often in these situations they can feel more like plot devices than humans.
It does make a couple of creative decisions later on in the film that are arguably hit or miss, Delhauer takes a fairly wild swing in the final scenes which is interesting, but not entirely effective. However, it is good to see that they’re not too precious about the characters, there’s the potential for anyone to be attacked, and it’s not immediately transparent which of them will make it to the finish line.
Blood Magick is a great indie effort, while there are many examples of those being undone by the limitations of their budget, the filmmakers here really embraced that and made it work for them. Frances Parsons is excellent as the blasé witch, she has such a great personality and was the perfect choice as a lead, and she’s even better alongside Laura Elizabeth Delhauer. The film moves well, it’s entertaining, the direction and editing are solid work, it doesn’t rely too much on effects, it has enjoyable characters, good dialogue and story, it’s ticking all the right boxes, leaves you wanting more and definitely deserves more attention.
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