Carrie Gemmell Archives - Sean Kelly On Movies

From Chris Alexander comes this spiritual sequel to his 2012 debut Blood For Irina. A vampiric force of nature named Irina (Shauna Henry) wonders the countryside claiming victims in her path, with Irina’s destiny apparently being tied to a pregnant widow (Carrie Gemmell). On the trail of Irina’s destruction is a murderous preacher (Nivek Ogre). Told without dialogue or even a traditional narrative, Queen of Blood is less a film than it is an experience. While the film does have a somewhat discernable story, with three chapters of Birth, Death, and Rebirth, the film is much more about blending the very artistically shot images with the sometimes screeching score. Queen of Blood can almost be called an avant garde horror film, due to its very hypnotic and non-conventional structure. The film also makes the use of slow fades, which work to blend two separate shots together. One thing that Queen of Blood has going against it is that the film can get quite repetitive and monotonous, with much of the film being built around the repeated act of Irina mesmerizingly moving across the landscape, only stopping to kill the people she comes across. Queen of Blood definitely lives up to its title as the kills feature quite a bit graphic gore, with Irina’s white dress becoming increasingly stained red as the film progresses. However, there comes a point when this cycle becomes too much and Queen of Blood really starts to wear out its welcome towards the end, as the story continues past multiple apparent end points. Altogether, Queen of Blood is a hypnotic, if repetitive, avant garde horror film, which needs to be experienced on the big screen or not at all.6 | WATCHABLE

Queen of Blood – Blood in the Snow 2014