MOVIE REVIEW
“Autumn Blood”
Grade: C
Starring Sophie Lowe and Peter Stormare. Directed by Markus Blunder.
Rated R for violence including rape and nudity. Check listings for theaters. 99 minutes.
Bottom line: A contemplative mood piece that's empty and tedious
By Cary Darling
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
The title, poster, premise, and the fact that it’s been sitting on the shelf for three years make “Autumn Blood” seem like a direct-to-DVD, low-rent Tarantino rip-off. The reality though is that the handsomely shot feature-film debut from German director Markus Blunder is more akin to B-grade Bergman. If anything, it’s more likely to infuriate than entertain those who happen to stumble into the theater thinking they’re going to see a routine action-revenge-thriller.
First, there’s next to no dialogue and the characters don’t have names. They’re just listed as The Girl, The Hunter, etc. Toto, we’re not in “Expendables 3” anymore.
The Girl (Sophie Lowe from the remarkable Australian miniseries “The Slap”) and her younger brother The Boy (Maximilian Harnisch) live in a remote mountain village though whether it’s supposed to be Europe (it was shot in Austria and the cast is largely European) or North America (everyone speaks English when they do bother to talk) is unclear. They’re orphaned after The Father (Jonas Laux) is shot and The Mother (Jacqueline Le Saunier) dies unexpectedly.
The men in town take advantage of the situation by raping The Girl (in two separate attacks), forcing The Girl and The Boy to flee into the woods. They’re pursued by bad guys The Hunter (Samuel Vauramo) and The Butcher (Gustaf Skarsgard) and the theoretical good guys The Mayor (Peter Stormare) and The Social Worker (Annica McCrudden).
Beautiful to look at, hauntingly scored, and well acted, “Autumn Blood” is magic as a cinematographer’s show reel and contemplative mood piece but empty, tedious and pretentious as a movie.
