Year:  2006

Genre:  Horror

Format Reviewed:  Netflix Streaming

                 Brought to us by writer, director and producer Lary Banning, AB-Negative is officially described on the official blurbs as follows:

"Wooster Carneal always does the right thing. But when he loses his wife, his job and his home, a desperate Wooster is extorted into harvesting human organs for the black market. While hunting down his unsuspecting victims, he also takes revenge on those who ruined his life. But to save himself, Wooster must stay three steps ahead of police, savvy news reporter Claire DuBois, and the organ brokers."

and for better or worse, that pretty much sums up the plot of this low budget movie.  Officially classified as a horror film, I would have classified it more as a drama, or suspense type film and not so much horror.

            Let me say that again – in my opinion, this is not a horror movie.  There is some minor violence, and they try to get there, but it just isn’t horror.  It isn’t scary, spooky, disturbing, or anything else that would denote horror.  The plot had possiblilities, but I’m not sure that it would have ever become anything but Touristas even with more money and a better cast.  Having said that, it is by far not the worst movie out there, nor the worst that I have seen.

            The acting is passable for a movie at this price point.  It isn’t great, even at its best, and there are some downright awful performances, couple at the park, I’m looking at you here, but overall despite its unevenness, it manages to get its message across, for better or worse.  I guess it would be like having your friends act in your movie, if they all went to drama class in high school.  The locations and set work is ok.  Think whatever the director could get, or maybe places that were owned by friends that were available to use for free.  The special effects were competent, but somewhat rare for a horror film.

            But was it any fun to watch?  Simply put, not really.  Truth of the matter is, it is very slow, even at it’s best.  The violence is sporatic, and not plentiful enough, nor graphic enough to make it a pure horror film, nor is a horror film type mood ever set.  The movie takes itself too seriously, and as such, just never gels into a good time that I can recommend.  Even the somewhat plentiful gratuitous nudity can’t save this movie’s good time rating.  This film fails to meet all but one of my requirements for a worthwhile horror film.  Here is how it rates:

Gratuitous Nudity:  Enough to be a plus to the film.

Graphic Violence:  A little, but not enough to get thumbs up in this category.

Story/Plot:  Nothing special here.  Not enough to save this movie.

Acting:  Pretty typical for a film at this budget level, which isn’t good.