MY CALL: It’s no Oscar winner, but this movie does an excellent job being this exactly what it was intended to be: a gory (even brutal) and funny creature feature B-movie. Ample blood, monster effects and humor make this a strong B-movie recommendation. MORE MOVIES LIKE Bad Blood: Well,).The tone falls somewhere between the extremes of Pigster (2019) and Bite (2015), maybe wandering into the B-movie atmosphere of Ticks (1993) and Mosquito (1994). For more wacky weremonsters, try Black Sheep (2006), Wolfcop (2014), Rottentail (2018) or Zombeavers (2015). For more amphibious B-horror, go for Humanoids from the Deep (1980), Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988), Croaked (1981) and Bite (2015).
With a major crime scene investigation in the neighborhood (a brutal murder and dismemberment), college student Victoria (Mary Malloy) sneaks out of the house to escape her domestic drama. Unfortunately, she picked the wrong night to be out of the house.
From the opening shots of the frog laboratory, a murder scene and a monstrous frog-like claw, this feels like a B-movie with shockingly high (attempts at) production value (for a B-flick). To the contrary, the writing, editing, photography and acting are acceptably on par with what you’d expect from a B-movie. But that’s okay, because this movie knows exactly what it is.
Our recently escaped monster skulks around like a cartoonish Scooby Doo villain often with greenlit mist behind him. As it nears its victims, we see its slimy rubber monster suit clawed feet pace closer. As hokey as that is, other aspects of the effects like the abundant flesh-lacerating latex and ooey-gooey bloodwork were effective and frequent. But make no mistake, the hokiness of this movie will grossly outweigh the professional if you keep score. Especially the green glowing Ninja Turtle ooze in the giant Re-Animator syringes. And don’t even get me started on the hilariously inappropriate grisly violent PTSD fantasies of the private investigator character. These scenes are short, sweet, brutal, unexpected and will have you laughing out loud.
Our story follows Victoria after she is attacked and infected with a werefrog version of lycanthropy. She works with a scientist who dedicates his garage research to the cause, and he supplies her with werefrog antigen to prevent her full moon transformation.
Eventually we get what everyone wanted to see: a transformation scene. It immediately reminded me of Zombeavers (2015) as teeth were pushed from their rooted sockets to be replaced with monstrous “amphibian” teeth (which I didn’t know was even a thing), her hair falls out along with her grip on reality as she develops her neck sac and her skin exudes thick mucous-like slime. And finally we have a frog-human hybrid with great looking mask effects along with some strikingly anatomically correct female characteristics.
Overall, the gore and creature effects in this otherwise low budget movie were very satisfying. The death scenes were messy and sloppy and fun, and I loved the head-ripping geyser of a sloppy decapitation.
I think first-time writer/director Tim Reis id admirably. It’s not Oscar winner, but he did an excellent job making this exactly what it was intended to be: a gory and funny creature feature B-movie. Strongly recommended for gore-hounds and creature feature junkies who can appreciate a lower budget. As far as those parameters go, this movie swings for the fences.