Review: ‘Blood Barn’ is a gloriously dumb riff on ‘The Evil Dead’

Gabriel Bernini’s Blood Barn makes a good companion piece to Ti West’s X. With a script co-written with Alexandra Jade, the indie bloodbath feels ripped from a bygone era. From its vintage style to its cookie-cutter character archetypes, it riffs on all the classically dumb horror movies of the 1980s—specifically referencing The Evil Dead in all its campy glory. Blood Barn practically slides into parody territory, with its delightfully mindless script and bizarre character choices. And that’s the point. It reads like a love letter to all the horror that came before, and its practical effects are truly top-tier.

Josie (Lena Redford) and her friends venture out to her family’s secluded barn for one last weekend of partying before they part ways and head off to college. Rachel (Chloe Cherry), Simon (Simon Paris), Amanda (Andrea Bambina), Eric (Samuel Lanier), and Scott (Pierce Campion) serve as your typical horny teenagers, a classic ’80s staple. It doesn’t matter that we don’t really know anything about them. It’s all about the body count! The more bodies, the better! Like many cult films, it doesn’t take long for the plot to rev its engines and barrel down a bloody train track of carnage candy.

As the group settles into imbibing in liquid courage, a sinister creature emerges from a splintered chest, a neon glow radiating from inside. As the poster (left) suggests, gnarled tentacles creep out of the broken lid onto the dusty barn floor and possess various characters, in a very Evil Dead 2 sort of way. There’s even a scene very reminiscent of crackling brush worming its way into someone’s body. It’s a wicked moment that rings just as uncomfortable to watch as the film’s predecessor.

Blood Barn doesn’t do anything new in the genre. Rather, it celebrates all the tropes and cliches we’ve come to expect. It’s an irreverent romp about the condemnation of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll. Bernini teams with cinematographer Benjamin Bradley-Gilbert to bring the visual storytelling to life with vibrant colors and camera work. It pays homage to the art of filmmaking, too, with an understanding of how specific choices effectively capture both fear and heart-throbbing lust. In Bernini’s macabre clutches, the film has all the makings of a midnight popcorn cult classic.

Gabriel Bernini crafts a senselessly fun experience, and that’s all it needs to be. Not every horror film needs to make a profound statement on culture and social trends. Sometimes, you just need something witless and silly to decompress and perhaps escape from the ravages of the modern world. And that’s quite all right with me.

Blood Barn is now streaming on Screambox.