Blood Red Earth (2009) User Reviews

Incomplete companion to The Burrowers

[FieCrier · 5/10 · 4 June 2009]

I first saw director J.T. Petty's movie The Burrowers. I liked it, but it didn't entirely work for me. This short works somewhat less.

As in The Burrowers, some people search for someone taken by The Burrowers. They're some kind of creature that cuts the neck and buries their victim alive. There's very little information and no sight of them in this short, more in the movie. Unlike The Burrowers, the protagonists here are Native Americans. It's an all-native cast save for one white man who tries to shoot a deer they were hunting. The dialogue is all subtitled. There are a number of shots of nature. There's a slight iris effect or at least the edges of the picture are dim. It ends with someone going off to learn more. Very unresolved. The music is nice, sounded a bit like a thumb piano.

I wonder why this wasn't included as an extra on The Burrowers DVD? I watched it on FearNet, for which it was produced I guess. I'm also not sure of the relationship of the TV series, which I have not seen, to this short and the feature.

Excellent Short Story

[WadeVC-1 · 8/10 · 15 March 2009]

Just finished watching Blood Red Earth, and I can say that this is a very well acted short story with an equally excellent plot summary which infuses creative and imaginative script-writing. The plot and actors make this 30 minute short quite believable, and the show hooks the viewer from start to finish.

The viewer follows the lives of a Native American family on the plains and their inadvertent encounter with a supernatural/evil force known as the "Burrowers"...which until now was more legend than reality. However, this legend takes form and we see how the Indian people try to ward off this evil once it surfaces.

Not what you would expect from a short, and certainly not the results one would expect neither. Gripping, exciting, and an overall great way to spend 30 minutes.