Usually not a style associated with the Philippines, they attempt to enter the martial arts/fantasy epic with this new effort from emerging indie director Vincent Soberano, also choosing to star in this new effort. Expanding on the folklore established in the previous shorts Blood Hunters and Blood Hunters: Aswang, this feature-length adaption of the storyline will get a digital launch on March 17 across various streaming platforms.
In the years following the arrival of the Aswang, a team of Blood Hunters led by Mante (Monsour Del Rosario), Max (Ian Ignacio) and Kali (Roxanne Barcelo) manage to stumble upon Gabriella Chang (Sarah Chang), a young woman hunting the powerful vampire Naga (Temujin Shirzada). Once they realize his partner Gundra (Mekael Turner) is in the area, they bring her into their camp to train with them when the special warrior Bolo (Vincent Soberano) becomes involved through Bolo and Naka attempting to launch a new attack. Deciding to beat them to the punch, they launch a surprise assault on the Aswang headquarters to stop them.
“Blood Hunters” does have its moments. One of the film's best qualities is that the brevity means that there's plenty of hard-hitting martial arts fighting choreographed by Jeff Centauri. Due to the storyline constraints featuring the Aswangs having superhuman strength, the fast, enhanced choreography and movements on display come off really well. The opening confrontations in the forest or the series of training battles are exciting enough, yet the real fun is the major battles in the finale. As the rescue team advances on the Aswang hideout in a solid firefight, the series of hand-to-hand battles inside their headquarters are filled with high-energy battles. With each member of the assault team and the Aswangs allowed to show off their physical prowess, these elongated fight scenes are very satisfying and enjoyable. Combined with some fine make-up work on the Aswangs, “Blood Hunters” has some likable elements.
“Blood Hunters” does have a few issues. The biggest problem here is the annoying and irritating tactic of cinematographers Miguel Cruz and Takeyushi Onishi shaking the camera around way too much for its action scenes. Nearly all of the martial arts battles are full of this, getting up close and personal to the action, which is then further downgraded by moving the camera all over the place. It ends up making the film exciting as something is always happening but also frustrating as most of that activity becomes disorienting after a while. Thankfully, this process is rapidly diminished for the finale. As well, the comic book-style of doing scene transitions, cutting to a still-shot of the last moment on-screen then switching to a comic panel that launches the next sequence, becomes somewhat joining for every time it occurs.
With a one-sided focus on martial arts skills and action scenes, “Blood Hunters” serves itself well in that singular regard but doesn't really do much else despite still not having much else to say about it. Viewers familiar with the previous entries in the franchise or aficionados of low-budget martial arts efforts should have a lot of fun with this one.
