Earth and Blood review – rainy siege thriller wastes its potential

When you notice that a film is only 80 minutes long and centres around the siege of a sawmill by a heavily armed gang hoping to retrieve a massive cocaine stash, you begin to make assumptions. Intuitively, this should be a relentless adrenaline rush full of loud action and imaginatively gory kills. Instead Julien Leclercq’s ponderous thriller Earth and Blood frequently stalls for time and lacks the sort of killer action flair that can turn this schlocky genre into something special.

It all opens promisingly enough with a tense, bloody raid on a police evidence room to steal the cocaine. Earth and Blood is fascinated by guns, and the focus given to them in the first scene sells their weight and the terror they inspire. Not long after, though, the story starts tying itself in knots, creating unnecessary convolutions that rarely pay off down the line. The thieves switch their cars, hand the coke over to one of their brothers, who drives it to the sawmill where he works, before the rival gang decides that they want the drugs instead of the initial thieves and launch their attack.

Meanwhile, we also get to know Said (Sami Bouajila), the mill’s owner and eventual protagonist, as well as his medical, business, and family history. But when all is said and done and Leclercq finally has his ducks in a row, there’s not much time left for the battle, so it feels very rushed. This hastiness extends to the production itself, especially in the sound mix, which is often poor and occasionally downright inept.

Earth and Blood is at its best in the opening moments of the siege, swift and gruesome violence and ominously lingering shots of the sawmill’s lethal machinery setting a grisly tone that is genuinely chilling. But then Leclercq makes a strange left turn, and moves the action to a far more generic setting of a barn and a farmhouse. The tension evaporates almost instantly and makes the time spent showing the audience the ins and outs of the logging gear redundant. If no-one is going to get chainsawed, why did we need to listen to a dull conversation about the buying of chainsaws?

As the antagonistic gang leader Adama, Eriq Ebouaney is wasted in a role that never quite decides what it wants to be. Attempts to give Adama some conflicted humanity, sold solely by Ebouaney’s efforts, are undercut by the villainous theme tune he’s given and his ridiculous, comic book-esque ability to snap people’s necks with minimal effort.

It’s a shame, because all the faults mean Earth and Blood wastes a great setting, especially as the sawmill’s dense forest surroundings provide an oppressive, chilly atmosphere. By not making a clear decision on whether it wants to be a gritty slice of realistic crime drama or a more pulpy offering, it ends up as neither – unbelievable but also rarely entertaining. You’re far better off watching Assault on Precinct 13 instead.

Earth and Blood is now streaming on Netflix.