In Devon Mikolas' Salvation By Blood, Jonah Young and Tina Krause play Matt and Theresa, a young couple who get introduced to witchcraft by a relative and are soon drowning in the realm of the occult. Their descent into madness will eventually lead the couple on a terrifying expedition of rape, torture and murder where their dark master will pull them further into insanity.
Written and directed by Devon Mikolas, Salvation By Blood is a 36 minute film of hits and misses culminating in an ending that was unexpected and relatively successful in its execution.
Being a small independent short, you would expect production values will be reflective of the $27,000 budget (source: IMDb.com). But Mikolas does a superb job with his location shooting and framing that the look of the film looks much glossier than the estimated budget would suggest.
Also above the independent bell curve is the story to which Mikolas scripted. Mikolas is fully aware of his objectives and does not try to elongate either the story or individual scenes for the purpose of padding a running time. Instead, he confidently weaves the story briskly in and out of scenes that will include comic book transitions and the increased speed of frames to represent demonic possession. The use of a voice-over for the majority of the running time is also a very effective story telling device.
Unfortunately, the acting and a few forced scenes are the snakes to Mikolas' ladders. Tina Krause overacts and is unable to project any realism into the Theresa character. And Jonah Young is hit and miss as the lead character Matt. The chapter depicting their descent into madness is over produced with a musical score while under produced in an attempt to relate to our understanding of occult madness (writing 1+1 = 666 on a post-it note just doesn't cut it).
With excellent use of lighting (a young girl sitting in a darkly lit space is a highlight) and some good special effects and make-up by Tom Denier Jr, Craig Lindberg and Alison Wadsworth, Salvation By Blood stands as a better than average film built on a budget that would equal a minimum payment on some credit cards.
I would be interested to see what Devon Mikolas does next. The writer, producer, director and actor who has the credit of 'Alley Rat Man' on his resume seems confident behind the camera and a larger budget and more competent supporting roles might mature Devon into someone to keep an eye on.
In the interim, we are grateful to have had the opportunity to share in the Salvation By Blood experience and we saw enough of things done right to give the film a small recommendation.
www.killerreviews.com
