Bliss

In LA, an artist (Dora Madison) is at a creative block, but finds herself in a nightmarish spiral of drug addiction and murder. She takes an hallucinogenic drug at a party that unblocks her artistic impasse, but also gives her a vampiric craving for blood.

Joe Begos's debut feature does not hold back, with more than a hint and a shade of Abel Ferrara about it and lots of gratuitous and aggressive sex and violence. It would probably have worked better as a short film rather than a feature that at 80 minutes still feels a little long and drawn out. It does pull out all the shock stops and is most definately of interest.

Look, there's not really a lot that happens in Bliss. There's a lot of setup, especially for a horror movie, and you have to wait a while for it to pay off. At times reminiscent of Starry Eyes, Bliss is three-quarters drama-- but then, aren't us horror fans always telling our judgmental friends that drama and horror aren't that different? Horror is just tragedy written all-caps.

But this isn't anything you'd call slow burn. It's not understated. It's loud. It's in your face. There's a lot of blood. There are a lot of boobs. There are a lot of bloody boobs. And there's no apology for any of that, not in Bliss-- there's exultation.

Eventually, I guess, Bliss is supernatural horror, playing around a popular enough trope, adding it's own fresh take on the (frankly tired) canon. I'd tell you more, except maybe you don't want to be spoiled. But really, it doesn't matter, not for this film. It's not about the plot, not about any kind of twist. It's about the character and the imagery.

There are a few reasons why Bliss really works. First, the lead is perfect. "Angsty," yes, but not to the point of parody. Madison takes us along for the ride in a way that few could. Second, the visuals are stunning. Part of this is filming. Part of it is editing. Most of it is just having the guts to follow the vision. If Bliss is part Starry Eyes, it's equally part Beyond the Black Rainbow: style above all.

Being one that loves any type of vampire film this one was done exceptionally well in the dark setting he chose and the actress that portrayed the main character! This is one trippy dark ride in the city of Angels!

Nothing is particularly obvious in this movie until late on when the story explodes.

The acting - especially by Dora Madison - is excellent throughout with believable characters that take you into their disturbed lives.

This movie is a conceptual idea of horror from beginning to end without the cliches and with superb production.

If you like something different on your movie menu this is certainly one to watch.

At the very beginning of 'Bliss' comes a warning that there are a lot of flashing lights in the movie and that epileptic people should be warned. Now I'm not epileptic in any way but man did I struggle to watch the opening credits. It was almost hypnotic, I wanted to look away but couldn't. This was an early indicator that this would be a very visually unique movie. A lot of bizarre and fascinating imagery is thrown at the audience. It's not an aspect of movies I typically notice but I couldn't help but be aware of it in this case.

The film had a bit of a 'Requiem for a Dream' vibe about it, particularly early on. There is a lot of heavy drug use featured in the film - in fact that's more or less what it's about. If you want to give your children a "don't do drugs" lesson this could be a good film to throw at them. It doesn't particularly glamourise them at all, in fact it makes them look downright nasty.

The final third of this film really changes everything and makes it into an almost entirely different film. I guess it's what makes it fall into the "horror" category. To be honest that was probably my least favourite element to the film. I could see why they went that way, and it tied in beautifully with the painting that is central to the film, but it just didn't work for me. Because no other characters are ever given any screen time or introduced to us in anyway it was impossible to care about any of them, and so the end scenes had almost zero intensity.

'Bliss' is a very quick little film (sitting at about 80 minutes) that has some really interesting stuff going on, but just struggles to combine it all into a fluent package. The ideas are all there, the execution is just slightly off.