Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
One week ago, was the opening day of the Film and Folklore Festival October Fest 2024 and I had the wonderful opportunity to host a workshop on Mastering Storytelling Techniques. I pride myself on being a Day One supporter of the festival and I previously did a recap of three films from the March edition (Terra & Naira, ShortCut and All Skin No Laugh). The recently completed October Fest featured a selection of great Caribbean films including one I had previously reviewed, the terrific 2020 Trinidad and Tobago supernatural thriller Mightier dan de Sun. In celebration of this edition, I will be reviewing five of the films that were shown. And we kick things off with the latest instalment in the Trinidad and Tobago superhero series Batchack Man: Blood of a Hero.
I have been watching and reviewing the Batchack Man franchise from the 2020 original film and the sequel short Missing Persons, the 2022 webseries The Peacemakers, and the short film Michelle the Fall which was released in March. The latest entry, nine-minute short Batchack Man: Blood of a Hero directed by Aaron Smith and produced by K.O Media, follows on from the events from The Peacemakers and Michelle the Fall.
The new short does no hand holding whatsoever, and people who have not watched the seven-episode webseries and Michelle the Fall would be pretty confused as to what is happening in Blood of a Hero. For those who have seen neither and dislike spoilers, then I would recommend getting caught up by watching both on GT Network by clicking here (The Peacemakers) and here (Michelle the Fall, scroll down to the sixth entry). But if you are already caught up or are one of those odd folks who doesn’t give two hoots about spoilers, then read on dear Robo Mango Reader, read on.
In The Peacemakers we learn that the titular hero’s girlfriend Michelle Hernandez (Angelia Byron) is haunted by the murder of her parents in Cuba seven years ago. During the series she injects herself with a serum that gives her telepathic powers. In Michelle the Fall she uses those powers in a quest to avenge her parents and does a heel turn from love interest to anti-hero to villain. In Blood of a Hero, she has fully embraced the dark side and teams up with Batchack Man masked bad guy (Blood Poison) to attack the hero (played by Keyon Byron).
The short film opens pretty strongly. We have some sweet-looking visuals and cool superhero narration by the Batchack Man himself. There is also some fun superhero action to be had and some entertaining visual effects (it’s obviously not Hollywood-level, but it is well done with the budget the team is working with). Angelia Byron also puts in good work as Michelle, a woman who has let vengeance corrupt her heart so much that she is almost unrecognisable. I must also praise Saraswati Ramlogan who has a great screen presence as the cryokinetic superhero Icy.
Blood of a Hero does have its share of issues though. I chuckled when Michelle’s phone rang, and her boyfriend Kevon’s profile picture is of him in costume as Batchack Man. That’s not a great way to protect your secret identity, dude. There is also a weird continuity error after the villains blast Batchack Man and when next we see him on the ground his mask has magically disappeared, and his chest is suddenly exposed.
The major issue with Blood of a Hero is the story, though. Firstly, it makes the choice to sideline the title hero in favour of other characters, which was a problem I had with The Peacemakers (I did not mind it as much with Michelle the Fall, as the focus was clearly on the titular character). Batchack Man needs to be the central focus in his own projects and the hero must have his time to shine to push the franchise forward. Reducing him to a plot point is just not a wise choice. All I want to see is the masked hero kicking backside, taking names, looking powerful and saving the day. Is that too much to ask?
I went into the short expecting the central plot to be Batchack Man struggling to redeem Michelle and either succeeding or failing. There is some of that, but not enough to hold everything together. And while I enjoyed Angelia Byron’s performance, I would have liked to have seen some hint of the goodness in the character. There was none of that, and she was oddly more concerned with the fate of Blood Poison than her former love. That said, I did have fun with Blood of a Hero, and it is worth checking out if just to see some super powered people throw down. And it does leave the Batchack Man franchise on a cliffhanger that would pique the interest of fans.
Editor Jules’ Score: 6 out of 10
You can watch Blood of a Hero on YouTube by clicking here. And you can check out more Batchack Man content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.