Blooded

Apparently inspired by the painfully real dramatised documentary ‘Touching the Void’, Edward Boase’s misconceived fake documentary presents fake dramatic reconstructions and fake interviews as the authentic story behind a notorious viral video. Clips from this video show a group of pro-hunting toffs stripped to their underpants, being hunted, captured and tortured by animal rights activists. The story runs that, following death threats by hunt saboteurs, Lucas Bell, the pro-hunting lobby’s poster boy, went to ground on the Isle of Mull with his ex-girlfriend Liv, his estranged prodigal brother Charlie, Charlie’s American girlfriend Eve and Lucas’s loyal best friend Ben.

Nothing rings true: the interviews with the ‘survivors’ defuse the little tension built up by the grainy video footage and reconstructions, while the issues are glossed over in favour of a wishy-washy condemnation of extremism. Cinematographer Kate Reid captures the rugged beauty of the landscape and Ilam Eshkeri’s urgent score works overtime to little effect. But the film only sparks into life whenever Joseph Kloska’s token Irish prole, Ben, recalls the horror of his ordeal.