Bloodletting

This movie got great acting and a great story with quite a few surprises. It´s about a girl (Ariuanna Albright), who blackmails a serial killer into teaching her how to kill. A very dark (and funny) movie, but not for everyone. Produced by J.R. Bookwalter and starring Tina Krause from W.A.V.E.-Productions, this is must for all b-movie lovers. Be sure to watch after the end credits. I give it 9 out of 10

The film, though interesting, is marred by some initially bad acting by the female lead (who does eventually get better, though). The script is sometimes too wordy for its own good, and after a while you wonder why these people are still talking and not doing anything. The whole serial killer angle is rather silly. The film suffer badly from lame direction; the film's cinematography ranges from poor to just incompetent. Yes, it's a low budget movie, but that really doesn't excuse the filmmakers from making a film that has some LIFE.

The problem with so many zero budget films is that they really spend too much time on talking. Too talky equals dull. Scenes of talking heads that go on forever pretty much ruin many low budget efforts. this one is no exception. It feels like the author thinks he has something important to say so he makes sure every member of the cast says it. For an hour and a half. Talk and talk and then kill a person and talk while doing it and then talk some more. The film wants to be edgy. A nd shocking. And it may have worked, if I had not been talked to sleep. The ultimate sin for any movie is to bore an audience. This one has a budget against it. Uneven acting. Bad lighting. But to bore me, now THAT is the final straw. I love low budget films. I like zero budget films like films by Todd Sheets, Mark Polonia, JR Bookwalter and more. But this one is not able to sustain tension, suspense or interest. The direction is flat and takes no chances and the ideas behind the film deserve more. Watch natural Born Killers again instead.

This amateurish but nonetheless spirited gory mess was produced by sleazebag J.R. Bookwalter's company "Tempe", which offers young ambitious directors like Matthew Jason Walsh the chance to share their enthusiastic horror ideas with a modest but loyal group of B-movie fans. The budget was really really low, resulting in poor editing, only a limited number of set pieces and very bad acting performances. In fact, "Bloodletting" pretty much looks like a rookie project of some film school student, as the story is a simple "Bonnie & Clyde" or "Natural Born Killers" variant (a serial killer couple in love), only with loads of nauseating gore and extra-crazy characters. The idea is okay, but the leads are very irritating and they talk way too much which only makes their lousy acting skills more clear. The gore highlights are quite memorable, including a pleasantly deranged "This Little Piggy..."- game and of course the absurd baby-killing sequence. The last half hour is dreadfully boring, though, and filled with totally ridiculous story-twists. Overall, I expected "Bloodletting" to be a lot worse, but that still doesn't mean it's good. "Bearable" is the word.

Perhaps I've been fortunate to have avoided all the garbage out there for so long, but for the first 26 years of my life, I have never seen a movie so bad. Usually I will watch a bad movie just to see what I would do better (I'm a Producer), but this one was so bad that I couldn't bear the thought of wasting one more minute of my life viewing it. Acting, Directing, Lighting, Sound... well, you get the idea -- EVERYTHING about this movie was bad. And by bad, I mean horrible. And by horrible, I don't mean good horror. I mean horror in knowing I have to use up my costly gasoline just to return this POS to the video store. To the cast & crew: sorry I hated it so much. At least you got distribution.