Rise: Blood Hunter

Rise: Blood Hunter
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Sebastian Gutierrez
Produced by	Sam Raimi Nathan Kahane
Written by	Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring	Lucy Liu Michael Chiklis Carla Gugino Margo Harshman
Music by	Nathan Barr
Cinematography	John Toll
Editing by	Lisa Bromwell Robb Sullivan
Studio	Ghost House Pictures Destination Films Mandate Pictures
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Films
Release date(s)	June 1, 2007 (2007-06-01)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2,850,927[1]

Rise: Blood Hunter is a 2007 neo-noir horror film written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez. The film stars Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis; a supernatural thriller about a reporter (Liu) wakes up in a morgue to discover she is now a vampire. She vows revenge against the vampire cult responsible for her situation and hunts them down one by one. Chiklis plays "Rawlins," a haunted police detective whose daughter is victimized by the same group and seeks answers for her gruesome death.

Plot

Reporter Sadie Blake has just published a notable article featuring a secret Gothic party scene. The very night following the publication, one of Sadie's sources, Tricia Rawlins, is invited by her friend Kaitlyn to an isolated house in which such a party is to take place. Tricia is reluctant to enter with the curfew set by her strict father, so Kaitlyn goes alone. When she does not return, Tricia becomes worried and enters the house as well. To her horror, she finds Kaitlyn in the basement with two vampires hanging onto her and drinking her blood. She tries to hide, but the vampires find her quickly. The next day, Sadie learns of the girl's death and decides to investigate the matter. She soon attracts the interest of the vampire cult, who kidnap her and bring her in for questioning. Following that, she is raped and murdered by the vampires.

To her surprise, Sadie abruptly awakes inside the cold box of a morgue. She escapes, but in the course of the following hours she finds to her horror that she has turned into a vampire herself. She attempts suicide by throwing herself off a bridge, but is found and taken in by fellow vampire Arturo who is less blood-thirsty and more benevolent than his brethren. Though his true motives are unclear — a power struggle between Arturo and the leader of Sadie's killers, Bishop, is mentioned — he helps Sadie to cope with her new condition and trains her to fight when she announces her intent to get revenge on her murderers.

Sadie tracks the vampires across the state, killing them one by one, while at the same time fighting the urge to consume blood from human victims. She soon crosses paths with Detective Clyde Rawlins, Tricia's father, who has taken upon himself to avenge his daughter's death despite the objections of his superiors and colleagues. At first he takes Sadie for an enemy, but in time he recognizes that she is not of the same breed as Tricia's killers, and they team up in their pursuit of Bishop, the last survivor of the band. They track him to an abandoned stable complex, where they find not only Bishop but also Tricia, now a vampire, who now openly voices her resentment and anger for her father. A hard fight ensues in which the evil vampires temporarily gain the upper hand. Sadie is left hanging upside down to slowly bleed to death, she is saved by Rawlins. The pair then turn the table against their enemies.

After Tricia and Bishop are killed, Sadie asks Rawlins to kill her too. She cannot bear the thought of having to give in to her bloodthirst and that she, since she is already dead, could never see her mother and sister again. Reluctantly, Rawlins grants her request and stabs her with a silver crossbow bolt. Once again, Sadie's body ends up in the morgue, but we see her come back to "life" again once more as the end credits begin to roll.

Cast

• Lucy Liu — Sadie Blake
• Michael Chiklis — Detective Clyde Rawlins
• Carla Gugino — Eve
• James D'Arcy — Bishop
• Margo Harshman — Tricia Rawlins
• Robert Forster — Lloyd
• Mako — Poe (Mako's last live film appearance)
• Allan Rich — Harrison
• Holt McCallany — Rourke
• Julio Oscar Mechoso — Arturo
• Samaire Armstrong — Jenny
• Marilyn Manson — Bartender
• Nick Lachey — Dwayne
• Elden Henson — Taylor
• Paul Cassell — Detective Easton
• Simon Rex — Hank
• Cameron Goodman — Kaitlyn
• Cameron Richardson — Colette (Frannie)
• Anastasia Baranova — Teen Girl

Reception

The film was poorly received by critics and has a rating of 33% on Rotten Tomatoes.^[2]

Lucy Liu was ranked number forty-one on "Top 50 Sexiest Vampires".^[3]

References

External links

• Official website
• Rise: Blood Hunter at the Internet Movie Database
• Rise: Blood Hunter at AllRovi
• Rise: Blood Hunter at Box Office Mojo
• Rise: Blood Hunter at Rotten Tomatoes
• Ghost House Pictures