Bloodline

Edo Tagliavini's "Bloodline" tells the story of Sandra who returns to the location of the horrors that befell her family 15 years earlier. Now as a journalist she is forced to relive the nightmares again as the ghost of her dead sister tries to save her. Part giallo and part supernatural horror story "Bloodline" is all Italian genre movie making. The film has the young woman going back to a nightmarish past while on assignment to document the behind the scene affairs of a genre bending porn director's new project. It stars Francesca Faiella, Virgilio Olivari, Marco Benevento, Alessandra Aulicino, Monica Citarda and Valentina Del Rio. Edo Tagliavini is the same director that has most recently been featured in the Foreign horror anthology "P.O.E. Poetry of Eerie" and "P.O.E. Project of Evil".

In "Bloodline" Tagliavini brings to life a bizarre horror story that has a heavy giallo atmosphere of somber despair, dark sinister shadows reminiscent of slasher movies and the added horrors of supernatural grandiose. The acting is very well done by Indie standards with a very dark and serious story that flows perfectly with the Italian dark humor that plays on elements of satire. The film is subtitled so if you "don't do subtitles" then your not going to care for the movie. The effects are awesome and gory in true Italian fashion. There is a slow and steady crescendo in to the story with very little intensity through a lot of the film which allows for a more personal connection with the characters before the nightmare is unleashed but it is so worth the patients. "Bloodline" is a wild ride into the pit of hell and excess told in a style only Italian horror can create. I really enjoyed this movie.

Sandra (Francesca Faiella) and Marco (Marco Benevento) are journalists doing a story on drug dealing. When faulty equipment blows their surveillance of a gang of dealers, they are pulled from the story and assigned to cover the production of a pornographic film by a director who's becoming famous for his genre-bending productions that use a combination of amateurs and professional actors. They are by no means excited to cover this story, but they are given little choice.

Sandra has particular reasons not to want to cover this film. When she was a young girl, her twin sister Giulia and herself were attacked by the Surgeon, a psychopath who kidnapped people in order to surgically remove their organs. Sandra escaped when she was injured and Giulia acted as a diversion to allow her escape. Giulia was never seen again. The film is being shot in the same location as this attack.

On their first evening covering the film, Sandra and Marco hear rumours that the Surgeon has been sighted in the area, many years after his supposed death. It's not long before members of the crew start disappearing and the Surgeon seems to be the culprit. Sandra and Marco stumble upon his hideout … and the film takes a really odd turn.

"Bloodline" is a modern giallo, and like many modern takes on the genre, it reproduces a lot of the plot elements of the genre without reproducing the style. As such, it's an interesting, but not particularly rewarding film. I was prepared to write it off as a curiosity until a completely unexpected change in genre happened during the last third of the film. Without giving too much away, the last third is an escalating series of bizarre events that takes the film in genuinely unexpected directions. Worth a watch, if only for this last third.

Sandra and her colleague Marco are instructed by their boss to create a service on the backstage of a pornographic film "auteur" as some sort of blackmail to not be redundant: everything would be normal journalistic routine, if the location was not the one where, 15 years earlier, was killed the sister of Sandra by a serial killer called "Il Chirurgo". Sandra decides to accept the job, but being involved in a new series of brutal crimes.

Notes:

After participating in several national and international Festival, the psychological horror "Bloodline" was released first in America and then finally arrived in Italy, his country of origin, in full Christmas period thanks to "Distribuzione Indipendente" which covers a alternative circuit of cinemas.

The film was shot digitally and with few economic means, but in the United States is considered the indie movie of the rebirth of the horror genre in italy. Not surprisingly we find the special effects master Sergio Stivaletti and the music of the composer of "Profondo Rosso" Claudio Simonetti, two names that have made the history of Italian horror.

The cast starred the actress is emerging Francesca Faiella, but there is also the former porn star Francesco Malcom. Really interesting performance of the actor Paolo Ricci in the role of Klaus Kinki.

The director Edo Tagliavini has been the winner of numerous awards for his royal including the "Golden Globe".