Blood Prism

1-3: Don't waste your time 4-6: Decent.

7-9: Good.

10: Outstanding.

I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason, this gave me Under the Skin or Beyond the Black Rainbow vibes. I think this is because the movie doesn't do much to help you understand the characters; additionally, the slow pacing of the film is similar to that of the other movies I mentioned, above.

I wouldn't call this a horror movie. Fantasy or mystery are better descriptors, I think.

The script was good. When I started watching, I thought that Cecily's dialogue was poorly written. The longer I watched, I realized that this was part of her character. If you find yourself disbelieving the dialogue, ask yourself how it may be hinting at unexplained elements of the characters.

Lead performances were very good. Alicia Seguin's performance is quite brave. Excellent soundtrack. Direction and lighting were also good. Special effects were competent.

Cecily is an interesting character that you want to know more about but, thankfully, the writers know not to give everything away.

I will likely watch this again.

I get that this is a low budget movie, but I wish they spent more of it on actors. While some of the cast performances are quite ok, the movie for me got ruined by overacting - all the forced eye-bulging, facial expressions that do not fit scenes and robotic delivering of text by main lead. Probably it was on purpose, but it just did not make much sense.

A possibly autistic woman goes around killing people that she thinks she can liberate from their problems but when she meets a random guy at a coffee shop she decides she's in love with him and doesn't want to kill him. Or does she?

I'm going to give Len Kabasinski a lot of credit for the attempt made here and there were some solid ideas in the mix. The main problem was the execution was all over the map.

Some tips: -DON'T use fade to black for EVERY SCENE -giallo style lighting needs consistency, not to change from shot to shot within scenes depending on who's talking -dubbing dialogue needs to match up with mouth movements AND match the other people talking in shots. If you don't have a consistent background sound everything sounds off -FADE music in and out instead of abruptly changing levels and the record scratch effect should be used SPARINGLY -if an actress is going to do a really put on performance make sure that it's actually something that an audience can stand to hear. Someone talking like a robot with a Minnie Mouse sounding voice and constantly bulging her eyes out while tilting her head is just WAY too much. Yeah I get the idea, but again, execution was not there -fully explore your concept so that there is a clearer idea of what is going on, it took too long to explain the concept here and it's not like the concept is some earth shatteringly great one. Focus and clarity.

What worked: the blood, violence and nudity were all of a good level for this kind of movie!

There was an attempt at saying something which was nice to see, rather than just killing for no reason Again, this isn't a put down, Len Kabasinski deserves everyone's support. He's a great guy doing the work. One day he'll get there!

Lead actress is unique, story catches your attention and keeps it all the way through

An artist on a mission assembles materials for her first exhibition, but love intervenes.

Naive film-making that tells an interesting story. Even allowing for the shoe-string budget, it's hard to forgive the poor quality of production in the first half, particularly the editing, sound and picture quality. But I really liked the lead performance, which had a stilted frankness. The actress also relishes cavorting in the nude - a true exhibitionist, which suits the story.

The quality improves as our heroine slashes her way through her victims, who are marked by the apparition of a shadowy figure. The high point is a genuinely good scene involving a door-to-door gospeller, which contains true blasphemy and a blast of black humour.

The theme is purpose in life - or purposefulness - whether in art, in spirit, or in love. You reflect who you are, and hope others see themselves in the reflection. Does it come together in the end? Well, the soundtrack over the final scene is from the Napoleonic wars, so watch and find out.

The music is a real rattle-bag, ranging from Fur Elise to a bit of punk, with a lot of creative commons stuff in the credits. Sounded good to me.

Overall: Plenty of sex and violence, but more a refraction through the blood prism that is life than a horror.