HollyBlood is a Spanish teen romantic comedy with horror and parodical elements. It centres on Javi, who is a normal adolescent who has no idea his crush on Sara is reciprocated. Sara assumes that Javi possesses supernatural abilities due to a series of misunderstandings. The film is now streaming on Netflix.
Story
Students from a Catholic high school have gone missing throughout the years, and vampire sightings have been reported.
In the present day, a group of teenagers are fascinated by vampires, particularly the famous Azrael, an ancient vampire often mentioned in past folklore.
Javi, a shy and mysterious guy, tries to approach Sara by creating bogus profiles on online vampire chatrooms.
He also tries to befriend her in real life. After a misunderstanding, people suspect that he is Azrael, and he plays along just to get close to Sara.
Things take a turn for the worse when a real vampire, Pelfrito, enters the picture and exposes Javi’s lie. Azrael’s identity is still unknown.
A vampire hunter, school teachers, other students, everyone gets involved to fight the vampires.
Performances
The film has dire performances, to be honest. The main leads i.e Javi and Sara played by Oscar Casas and Isa Montalbán are outright bad with no real chemistry. They do nothing impactful with their characters and you can see that they are only ‘trying’ to act.
One standout performer is Carlos Suárez, who plays Diego. He is fun, realistic and great to watch on screen.
The supporting cast is subpar. No one stands out but they make do.
Positives
The film has a perfect runtime of around 90 minutes. It is not stretched and does not get boring.
HollyBlood is a light watch. It refers to so many movies and their spoofs which are sometimes fun to watch. The spoof of twilight is indeed a great addition.
The second half is interesting and certain reveals and plot twists are done well.
Characters are not necessarily good or bad, and many have different shades of grey which seem authentic.
Negatives
The supposed comic elements are barely funny and viewers can’t help but watch it with a straight face.
The main characters are badly written and have a poor story. Javi, who is the supposed hero of the film is more like a stalker. Lacing such characteristics with a hero should not be romanticised.
HollyBlood has no flavour and leaves no impact on the audience. A potentially interesting plot is wasted because of other factors. The supernatural elements take a traditional route, the comedy is not funny but rather disappointing, and the romance involves no chemistry.
The movie romanticises Sara to an unrealistic extent where everyone is obsessed with her and fighting over her, including her best friend, who has lied to be a cripple. It’s just sad to see because we see nothing about the character and the film just takes the cliche road.
Verdict
If you are looking to watch something in the background while multitasking and doing other activities, HollyBlood is a good bet. You won’t miss much. It is a light watch with no apparent message, not a good one at least.
HollyBlood
Director: Jesús Font
Date Created: 2022-09-07 12:30
1.5
Also Read: HollyBlood ending explained: Do Sara and Javi defeat Azrael?