The Blood Lands (2014)

aka: White Settlers
Dir: Simeon Halligan

Ed (Lee Williams) and Sarah (Pollyanna McIntosh LET US PREY), a couple of yuppies looking to escape the rat race in London, travel to Scotland to take a look at Castle Farm. The main house and out buildings are in need of repair but Sarah falls in love with the home and the surrounding countryside. With the added incentive of the property selling for cheap, Sarah convinces Ed that Castle Farm should be their home. Three months later they move in for their first night in their new home.

Later that night they hear noises as if someone is in the house and when they go downstairs to check on things they find the front door open. For reasons unknown to Ed and Sarah and the viewer, a group of men wearing pig masks have broken into the house and are hell bent on terrorizing the new home owners. It becomes a game of cat and mouse as Ed and Sarah try to escape the clutches of the intruders.

As with far too many horror films, THE BLOOD LANDS breaks out the check list of cliches. Mobile phones do not work, a protagonist running through the woods trips and falls, characters do really stupid things but somehow manage to do just the right thing at the right time to prolong any chase but then do something stupid again, if you are fighting a foe don't bother to make certain he / she / it is really down for the count and all the rest.

Despite the short comings, director Simeon Halligan manages to build up tension and Ian Fenton's script features an interesting premise for as to why the couple is being tormented. If the viewer can look past its faults, THE BLOOD LANDS is not too bad of an entry into the family in an isolated house encountering malevolent forces genre.

**1/2 out of ****