Bloodshed

Bloodshed: 8 out of 10: When I discuss no-budget horror films with my friends. (Or the voices in my head) We often sound like those Monty Python coal miners trying to out-do the horrors of each others childhood. "Raptor Island hah I sat through San Franpyscho." "San Franpyscho is an Academy Award picture compared to Dark Harvest 3. Now that's cinematic pain." So I began to question myself on why I would purposely rent such films as Heartstopper or Warriors of Terra when there are plenty of fine Hollywood productions starring Nicholas Cage such as National Treasure or The Wicker Man I could be watching instead.

Okay the recent Cage oeuvre may be a very bad example but the question remains why torture myself with what is basically other people's home movies. Bloodshed is the answer to that question.

It is one of those rare no-budget films where the acting isn't grating, the script is competent and the direction is actually good. The film even delivers both genuine tension and characters you actually care about.

In terms of pacing and characters it handily beats out most Hollywood films let alone most Hollywood horror films. (Before you accuse me of exaggerating please remember that every Adam Sandler comedy is considered a Hollywood film. I'm grading on a curve here people.) Bloodshed is bragging rights, a true gem in a field of….. well incompetent home movies.

Is the film perfect? Well no. It is slow to start (this turns into one of it's charms), the sheriff could have been played better and the ending is pretty awful.

Overall a good film and considering its genre and budget a very very good film indeed.

I rented this movie at my videostore, because the cover caught my attention, the resume on the back sounded interesting and the average rating at IMDb indicated, that it could be a hidden gem for friends of the horror genre. Well, now I just watched this movie, and it didn't hold anything it promised...the story is weak, the characters stupid, not sympathetic at all and for that reason not to identify with at all. The photography of this flick is really amateur-stylish, but not in an innovative and thus good style, but just looks amateurish cheap. The directing is poor and so are the actors, who act all too wooden by one exception (the sheriff). At all this is a movie to forget about, and I definitely will.

A bunch of us got together at work and watched Bloodshed and had a blast. It was creepy in parts and kept us shouting out and cracking up. It's a good group movie, because you can shout out funny lines to bust up your crowd in between dialog. Watch out for Jam being passed around and girls remember it's O.K. to flash he boys during the topless scenes.

I think it's a decent low-budget horror film, but what's different about it is it's also really funny in spots. Mix that with a little wit from the crowd and it can be hilarious to watch.

There were a couple scenes which I thought were great, real gems. I'm not going to give anything away but keep your eyes open for some cool shots.

There's something cool about the rawness of it. It's not all "hollywooded up" if you know what I mean.

Anyway hope you have as much fun as I did watching it.

Frankie and Donnie live in seclusion in a small town where everyone seems to accept them if not trust them. Until a group of rebellious teenagers (arn't they always?) get themselves in trouble. With the desire to remain spoiler-free I'll leave it at that.However, for a low-budget film I was surprised at how well the cinematography was and while the dialog wasn't anything amazing, that was above average for an indie horror film as well (for the most part) All in all a solid effort by first time Director, Jim McMahon... even if I might have had problems with the ending.

My Grade: B-

Eye Candy: Shannon Laine gets topless

In a small town, the bully Luke and the troublemaker son of the sheriff Rodney are very aggressive with the outcast Frank and his moron brother Donnie while dating the waitresses Katie and Beth, but Sheriff Greene resolves the situation. On the next day, Luke, Katie and Rodney are having a threesome in Luke's car and Donnie watches them; Luke and Rodney leave the car and beat up on him. However Frank arrives and defends his brother, defeating the two guys. They drive away, but leave Katie that had run to the woods. Later Sheriff Greene arrives in the cottage of Frank asking for Katie; but Frank glances at his brother arriving in the house with Katie's body covered of blood. Frank does not allow the sheriff to enter in his house and later Donnie explains that Katie dropped on the woods and died. When Beth calls Katie in her cell phone, Donnie answers the call and Frank decides to kidnap the girl. Then Luke and Rodney decide to investigate Frank's house and they are murdered by Frank in the beginning of a bloodshed in his real estate.

"Bloodshed" is an amateurish trash movie, with poor screenplay, direction, acting, camera and cinematography and an awful conclusion. If I see this movie in a class of cinema, I would even list qualities; however, I bought the DVD and my feeling is that I was deceived since this movie looks like an average project from a cinema class. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Abrigo" ("The Shelter")