BloodRayne (film)

Plot

Rayne is a dhampir, a hybrid of human and vampire, with a diminished thirst for human blood and a weakness to holy water but no vulnerability to crucifixes. She is the daughter of Kagan, a vampire king who raped her mother and later had her killed when she refused to hand Rayne over. Kagan has amassed an army of thralls to annihilate humanity.

Members of the Brimstone Society—Sebastian, Vladimir, and Katarin—learn of Rayne working as a carnival freak and seek to recruit her to overthrow Kagan, who also hunts her. Rayne escapes captivity when an abusive caretaker attempts to rape her. After saving a family from vampires, a fortune teller reveals that Kagan, now the most powerful vampire in Romania, seeks an ancient talisman called the mystical eye, which would allow an audience with him. Rayne travels to a monastery where the eye is hidden, kills a hammer-wielding deformed monk guarding it, and retrieves the talisman despite booby traps that flood the chamber with holy water.

The eye magically absorbs into her own, and she is unharmed by the holy water. Monks explain the eye is one of three body parts from an ancient vampire named Belial, who overcame vampire weaknesses: the eye overcomes holy water, the rib overcomes the cross, and the heart overcomes sunlight. Kagan desires all three parts to gain Belial's powers, and the heroes set out to stop him.

Reception

BloodRayne premiered at the Austin Film Festival on October 23, 2005, and opened in 985 U.S. theaters on January 6, 2006, after originally being planned for up to 2,500 theaters. Billy Zane was involved with distributor Romar Entertainment, and Uwe Boll later sued him for revenue owed. The film grossed $1,550,000 in its opening weekend and $3,591,980 by June 2006 against a $25 million production budget.

On Rotten Tomatoes, it holds a 4% approval rating based on 53 reviews, with the consensus calling it an absurd sword-and-sorcery video game adaptation with a slumming cast; it ranked 48th on the site's list of the 100 worst-reviewed films of the 2000s. Metacritic gave a weighted average score of 18% based on 13 reviews, indicating overwhelming dislike. Joe Leydon of Variety described the film as lurching at a graceless plodding pace with confusingly cut swordfights and minimal guilty-pleasure titillation. Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide called it indisputably the best of Boll's first three video game adaptations but not good by any standard.

Critics ridiculed Boll for hiring actual prostitutes instead of actors for a scene featuring Meat Loaf to save costs. Berge Garabedian of JoBlo's movie reviews found it decent for what it was, with a hot lead actress and fun bloody action sequences, despite poor dialogue and a lame story. Steve Chupnick of the Latino Review gave it a B rating, noting it was not good but far from the worst, and mentioned Kristanna Loken's nude scene favorably.

Did You Know?

• Screenwriter Guinevere Turner estimated only 20% of her script was actually filmed.
• Filming took place in Romania, including a castle where Prince Vlad the Impaler presumably spent a night.
• The director's cut DVD box set included a full copy of the BloodRayne 2 video game on the second DVD.