Stylish but barely mediocre overall

One of the best films i have seen

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

OK, so I watched it without much hope, since I had read a few comments here and I expected something quite bad, especially considering this movie doesn't seem to be widely distributed and it had been quite difficult to find. But I actually found out it really wasn't as bad as I feared.So first, a little summary - with quite a few spoilers, so be warned if you haven't seen it: two college boys accept to be part of an experiment in a pharmaceutical lab for what is presented to them as a test for a new drug for allergies. The test quickly proves itself to be something completely different though, as the drug being tested aims at making people more or less invulnerable. The problem being that it has quite nasty side-effects: first removing all feeling of disgust, then basically every kind of social inhibition, and also being extremely addictive. In the end, the movie gets into zombie-movie territory, even though there are actually no zombies in it, but flesh eating people who are almost impossible to kill are close enough…So of course, the characters are quite mono-dimensional, and there isn't a lot of surprise here. The most "complex" character seems to me to be Dr Wilcox, and I think Tricia Helfer did quite a nice job: she has obligations and wants it to work, she's probably paid a lot for it and she might also know how everything will end up if she fails, knowing who her clients are. But her doubts show more and more as the experiment turns slowly into a complete disaster. So of course, she has cheesy lines, but after all, she hasn't been the one writing the dialogue… I found the acting mostly quite good, considering the obviously low budget and the simple enough characters.I thought the atmosphere was quite good too, and I really ended up weirded out and wondering as the side effects started to show. The scene with the couple having sex while they are run over by cockroaches and don't seem to care the least definitely worked for me. The idea of having one of the study subjects needing an operation and ending up dying because it was impossible to cut her open as the wounds healed instantly was also very nice.There are a few things that were quite bad though, mostly because they were completely unbelievable: the team of 'specialists' putting explosives more or less randomly in the building, the two college guys miraculously succeeding to escape after we've seen them running before the explosion when they were like on the 4th or 5th floor (hint: the only way they could have escaped here would have been to jump out of a window, and from this high, they would be dead or severely injured), the Aaron guy still alive in the end, but with a wound around his neck (either he has taken the drug, and he wouldn't have the wound, or he didn't, and he would be dead), and the guy chopping a head off with an ax, which is so unrealistic that is is quite laughable.But in the end, I found the movie quite enjoyable. I spent a nice moment watching it, and I find myself remembering more the good points than the bad ones. I'll probably even watch it again one of these days.

****SPOILERS*** Movie about these two not so bright collage students Greg & Rob, Travis Van Winkle & John Bregar, who decide to spend their spring brake as guinea pigs in this weird experiment-In them being paid $3,150.00 each-in being subjected to this drug RXZ19 that's to rejuvenate their bodies no matter how much damage is done to them. With the sexy Dr. Wilcox, Tricia Helfer, in charge the two feel that they can hit on her or some of her women patients to make things even more interesting for them. It soon turns out that the experiment is really being conducted by what seems like the CIA headed by the man in charge or in the dark suit Eric Roberts who planned to have all those involved including Dr. Wilcox killed to keep the results from being made public!What this experiment does to its victims is turn them into flesh eating zombies as well as have them become indestructible in that no matter what's does to them they come back to life with the bodies rejuvenating themselves minutes after their destroyed. Things got so out of hand that Dr. Wilcox calls for reinforcements from a nearby US Army base to stop the rejuvenated Zombies from breaking out of their confinement and killing and devouring anyone, man or animal, in the vicinity.****SPOILERS**** It's both Greg & Rob who finally make it to safety after the military lead by Eric Roberts-The man in the dark suit- wipe out and burned the flesh eating zombies and had the entire place roped off and quarantined from the public and media. But the bad news for the two boys is that in trying to escape to civilization their picked up hitch hiking by the chubby Aaron,Joe Pingue,one of the few who wasn't effected by this experiment who to their shock, by him locking the car doors, is now himself a flesh eating zombie and driving them back to where they escaped from, the secret laboratory, to be incinerated.

In 2006, a medical trial at a London hospital went terribly wrong; six young men suffered grotesque side-effects, and one needed all his toes and several fingertips amputated. Whether or not "Bloodwork" was inspired by that horrific happenstance, this one works, big time.Two students volunteer for a two week medical trial attracted by a payment of over three thousand dollars. They are led to believe this is a routine experiment developing a common or garden medicine, but of course it is not. Rather the researchers are testing a wonder drug that has magical healing properties. Suffice it to say as with the aforementioned Northwick Park trial these volunteers experience unexpected side-effects, in particular of a psychological nature. Well, perhaps not totally unexpected.When one of our heroes puts two and two together, he wants out, but the other participants are bribed to stay on, and he is falsely imprisoned. The scientist running the project is told she must expedite matters, and of course this can only make things worse."Bloodwork" has it all: drama, humour, the odd bare breast, action, morality play, science fiction and horror all rolled into one, complete with an ambiguous ending.

How on Earth is this a solid effort? Seriously now, I love horror in its many forms but Bloodwork is cheap and acts the same too. The subject is overly used, the actors are OK, the logic in the film is missing, no scares, no tension, just a lot of mediocre moments that lead to a very weak ending.Bloodwork is a combination of things you've seen a thousand times, trust me, a little bit of The Facility, Insanitarium and so many like those 2 that I'm just gonna stop here. If you are new into horror, maybe this will seem like an interesting thing to watch one lonely, rainy night, but for anyone else, either familiar or just looking for a good scare, it will present itself as a very big disappointment. I was seriously surprised as how bad it was, I waited and waited and at a certain point I did realize that this is all it has to offer.Therefore I recommend you look elsewhere, no point into watching something that was made long before, not even at the same quality. Bloodwork is a ripoff that failed badly, showed some potential here and there but it didn't work out well. So sad I got fooled by all those positive reviews and quite a good rating too. Well, you live and learn. Cheers!