DISCLAIMER: This review contains affiliate links. Clicking on any of the images below will take you to either Play-Asia, J-List or 365 Games for your consideration.
Clicking on these shopping links below and buying an item supports my work and keeps it free for everyone! Thank you for your support:
Mighty Ape: Games, books, movies, toys, music and more! A huge range of products at great prices and quick shipping. I’ve been using them for over a decade and can’t recommend them highly enough!
Horror movies from Vietnam can be very hit and miss. Due to the countries very strange censorship laws, most of the time their horror movies can’t fully explore the themes they want to - a great example of that being the brilliant film Kumanthong which was severely edited before release.
Choosing not to play it safe, the filmmaker of this film has chosen the topic of black magic as well, and with a pretty decent result.
[above] Her eyes are having some trouble lying…
It must be tough to be a Vietnamese filmmaker. Even the director of the popular action film Furie from 2019, Le-Van Kiet, has had two horror films either banned or heavily censored, and when movies are butchered by the government, they usually always lose the elements that made it an interesting film in the first place.
With that in mind, I approached Blood Karma with some trepidation. How much of this film was cut before release? Is this the film that the director wanted to release?
Well, I don’t have any answers to those questions, so I have to assume this movie made it through unscathed.
[above] Moody compositions done right!
PLOT
A man returns to his family home after studying in America, where he is being groomed by his mother to take control of the family. Also living in the house is his wheel-chair bound brother, his mentally intellectual oldest sister, and his pregnant older sister and her husband and his aunty, along with two housekeepers.
There is a room where the mother hides away in every night, where no one is allowed to enter. In this room is where she practices her black magic, and her obsession with her son drives a massive division between her siblings.
ABOUT THE FILM
I have to admit, the presentation of the film is probably the most interesting part of it, where we are introduced to the mother in prison, where another woman visits her to talk about what happened the night of all the killings.
We don’t find out who this woman is until later in the movie, and its right at the end where everything starts to make sense, which is why I mention this is the most interesting part of the film, because the rest of it is rather average.
The movie is technically competent and hard to fault. Black magic scenes look as creepy as you’d expect, and all the deaths are nothing original, which works against the movie as it takes beyond the half way mark to get a full grasp of the scenario in the film, and by that stage my interest was wanning big time.
But stick with it. There is a tale of betrayal, adultery and a pretty cool twist at the end that might actually make you feel a bit sorry for the evil mother.
What are my overall thoughts?
As far as Vietnamese horror movies go, it’s not that bad at all. Coherent, stylish and with a decent twist at the end, it’s just a mystery if you can make it all the way to the end when you consider its almost two-hour running time.
If you come across this while searching for a film and nothing else takes your fancy, give it shot. But don’t except to get fully immersed into it.
For your consideration: Clicking on these shopping links below and buying an item supports my work and keeps it free for everyone! Thank you for your support:
J-LIST: For Japanese pop culture items, including games, movies and adult products. Beware of NSFW content.
365 Games: Direct from the UK! Get great deals on the latest games, music, movies, toys, clothes and more!
Play-Asia: For the latest games, movies, figures, books, lifestyle products and other cool stuff direct from Asia! Great prices and low shipping.
Mighty Ape: Games, books, movies, toys, music and more! A huge range of products at great prices and quick shipping. I’ve been using them for over a decade and can’t recommend them highly enough!
Genre Horror Drama
Director Nguyễn Minh Chung and Phạm Minh Hữu Tiến
Starring Phạm Minh Hữu Tiến, Kim Xuân, Phạm Huỳnh Hữu Tài
Original Title Hạnh Phúc Máu
Country of Origin Vietnam
Release Date November 25 2022