Ever since the debacles known as Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, I think a lot of people forget that Joel Schumacher is a good director who really knows how to make some entertaining movies. And while his last high profile flick (the Jim Carey thriller, The Number 23) was so bad that calling it awful is being kind, this is still the man who brought us horror/thriller classics The Lost Boys, 8mm, and Flatliners. With Town Creek (Blood Creek in the US), Schumacher regains much of the form that made his great films so damn good.

The best way I can describe the premise behind the film is this: the plot plays out like the lyrics of a really great Black Metal song… well, American Black Metal at least.

In the late 30s, the Third Reich sends Professor Richard Wirth to stay with a recently emigrated German family, the Wollners, at their farm in Maryland. The reason for Wirth’s visit has to do with a mysterious stone rune that the Wollners used as part of their barn’s foundation. This rune was left behind by the Vikings (who the Reich believe to be their ancestors) when they first discovered the Americas, and according to ancient texts, is said to contain the secrets to immortality! And so Professor Wirth settles in and begins his quest to unravel the secrets of eternal life. Fast forward to the present day and we find Evan Marshall, a local paramedic, who spends his life caring for his ailing father and his brother Victor’s (Dominic Purcell, of Prison Break fame) family ever since his disappearance from a camping trip 2 years ago. When Victor suddenly returns late one night to his brother’s bedroom, battered and bedraggled, he begs Evan to ask no questions… only to get his guns, some ammo and trust his brother. Victor needs Evan’s help with some unfinished business with his former captors until anyone can know that he is still alive. But Victor warns… “If you do this with me, nothing will ever be the same again”.

What transpires next is a non-stop rollercoaster ride, filled with blood-soaked revenge, a crash-course on occultism, Nazi/Nordic lore, and a lot of demonic animal slaughter. Sure the film has pretty big lapses in logic and the CGI at times can be pretty amateurish (though not bad enough to detract from how terrifying horses, especially demonic ones, can be inside your home), but none of this takes away from how entertaining of a movie this is from start to finish.

I really wish I had seen this last year when it came out, as it no doubt would have been one of my top Horror flicks for 2009, but I get the sense that NO ONE really saw this film. Town Creek is the sort of film you hope shows up at 2am on Showtime 2 when you’re dealing with a bout of insomnia. This not only has cult classic written all over it, it actually sets up very nicely for a horror franchise in the vein of Phantasm and Salem’s Lot.

- My Pal the Crook