BloodRayne (series)

BloodRayne is a franchise that originated in two video games developed by Terminal Reality and inspired several motion pictures and a comic book series.

Influences
BloodRayne appears to be heavily inspired by Nocturne, an earlier third-person survival horror game by Terminal Reality. The character of BloodRayne is similar to a character in Nocturne called Svetlana, another half-vampire supernatural hunter. In early beta screenshots of BloodRayne, BloodRayne's appearance and costume was almost identical to that of Svetlana's. Additionally, some enemies in BloodRayne (such as the Daemites and bat vampires) originally appeared in Nocturne. The final act of BloodRayne also takes place in the same location (Castle Gaustadt) as the first act of Nocturne. Finally, the concept of the Brimstone Society is very similar to the Spookhouse in Nocturne; and the voice of the Brimstone Society agent from the BloodRayne introduction movie is done by Lynn Mathis who also did the voice of Stranger, the protagonist of Nocturne.

Both BloodRayne and Svetlana may have been inspired by the character of Durham Red from the comic book 2000 AD, although that has been frequently denied by the TRI representatives when discussed on bloodrayne.co.uk forums. In a posting then on the then active BloodRayne.uk.co fan forums Joe Wampole, a developer for BloodRayne had this to say,

"Durham Red looks like a cool character but we've never heard of her. It is coincidence that her and BloodRayne look so similar.

The symbol on the hair is similar but looks more like a target, while Rayne's looks a little like Prince's symbol. Also, it looks like Durham is set in some alternate super sci-fi future.

I think it is just natural to put a vamp chick in black leather and either color her hair black or red."

BloodRayne
BloodRayne, developed by Terminal Reality, is a horror-themed third-person action video game released on 15 October 2002 for Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and on 9 September 2003 for PC. A Mac port was done by Aspyr and released on 6 May 2003, but was plagued with technical problems not seen in other versions, which caused fans to be upset and reviews to be harsh.

It is set in 1933 and 1938, just before World War II. As an agent of the Brimstone Society, Rayne is sent to a variety of locations (a small swamp town in Louisiana, a Nazi fortress in Argentina, and an ancient castle in Germany) to battle supernatural creatures as well as the Nazi army.

BloodRayne 2
BloodRayne 2's plot features Rayne confronting her father vampire, the King of Vampire, Kagan. Denied the pleasure of killing him herself, Rayne spent the last 60 years after the War seeking out and destroying Kagan's other offspring. These offspring, Rayne's half-siblings, have banded together to form a group called the Cult of Kagan. The Cult has created "The Shroud", a substance that can render sun rays harmless to vampires, allowing them to surface at all times of the day, and twists nature into a nightmarish perversion (trees dying almost instantly, grass catching on fire, corpses twitching). Using "The Shroud", the Cult has pledged to create a new era of vampire supremacy, continuing Kagan's legacy.

BloodRayne PSP (cancelled)
Majesco announced that one of their upcoming games was going to be a BloodRayne game for the PSP. Little was known, except that it supposedly took place immediately after BloodRayne 2, and would feature a two-player cooperative mode, which would have made it the first game in the series to do so. The game was to cover Rayne's unknown history, and return some old characters (Mynce, Kagan, butcheress etc.) and develop new characters. However, financial difficulties forced Majesco to cancel BloodRayne for the PSP.

BloodRayne: The Shroud
It has been announced that BloodRayne: The Shroud is currently in development for the Nintendo 3DS.

BloodRayne (2006)
On 6 January 2006, BloodRayne was released. It features Terminator 3 star Kristanna Loken as Rayne and Ben Kingsley as Kagan. The film's premise was announced as follows: "Set over two centuries before events in the game, the film will follow BloodRayne's quest to stop Kagan's nefarious schemes to slaughter mankind."

The film was directed by Uwe Boll, who directed two other video-game-to-movie adaptations (House of the Dead and Alone in the Dark) which were ill-received by critics. The film received poor reviews, and was declared "an absurd sword-and-sorcery vid-game adaptation from schlock-maestro Uwe Boll, featuring a distinguished (and slumming) cast." by Rotten Tomatoes reviewer consensus.

This film is non-canon to the game series, as it is set over two centuries before the game, and deviates from the game's plot numerous times.

BloodRayne II: Deliverance (2007)
On 2 October 2006, Boll revealed that a sequel named BloodRayne II: Deliverance was to be released in January 2007. Unlike the previous film, Natassia Malthe plays Rayne. The plot involves Rayne battling vampires in the Wild West. The film was released direct to DVD in September 2007.

BloodRayne 3: Warhammer
Uwe Boll has announced that he will be making BloodRayne 3, set during World War II. He stated both Kristanna Loken and Natassia Malthe want to return to play Rayne in the film. Filming is to begin in Croatia, in spring 2008.

Comics
As of September 2007, seven BloodRayne one-shot comic books have been published by Digital Webbing. They are, in chronological order:


 * Skies Afire
 * Seeds of Sin
 * Lycan Rex
 * Dark Soul
 * Twin Blades
 * Tibetan Heights
 * BloodRayne RAW II

"BloodRayne: Plague of Dreams" was a three-part bi-monthly miniseries first published on 20 September 2006. It was written by Troy Wall with art by Mark Robinson and Stacie Ponder.