Title: Bleed With Me
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Amelia Moses
Starring: Lee Marshall, Lauren Beatty, Aris Tyros
Runtime: 1 hr 19 mins

What It Is: Rowan (Marshall) is on a weekend trip with couple Emily (Beatty) and Brendan (Tyros) at a getaway cabin in the midst of winter. An anxious paranoiac, Rowan grows suspicious when she becomes convinced that Emily has been drugging her and stealing her blood.

What We Think: That plot that you read is pretty much the whole movie. Well, that, and a LOT of tedious and uninteresting if not repetitive exchanges between the three characters (who make up the entire cast as they are predictably isolated in the cabin). Not only are the conversations repetitive, but so is the attempted psychological drama and imagery… all we get is some blood-play, not anything you haven’t seen before in your average everyday horror movie. Its technical elements are not strong nor particularly weak: I actually quite liked looking at it through the capability of the cinematography as it nicely translated the chilly and vulnerable atmosphere amongst a snowy forest full of naked trees that we first see Rowan enter, implying that events may lead either which way, through that was about it that I could enjoy. The editing was fine, though the cutaway to the characters having a high conversation after smoking weed was cliche (though that was probably more towards the fault of the writing). The music was at first interesting, Grouper or Jasper TX-esque in a cold ambiance that I thought might bring something new to the table… and ultimately did not as it became forced in pushing a tense narrative despite the lack of an interesting story to build that tension. The acting was a tad stiff and at first, I gave it the benefit of a doubt, like perhaps the line delivery was that way for a reason… though not really. Given a better script and story, I’m sure their performances would improve as well. Lastly, as I had mentioned firstly… the plot is just empty. It’s a slow-burner featuring awkward interactions, contrivances, attempts at disturbing nightmare scenes that are supposed to make you question the reliability of the protagonist’s psyche, and an anticlimax. There’s little backstory, even fewer answers to the questions we’re given, and even less interest built up within what was almost an hour-and-a-half.

Our Grade: D-, I’ve said my peace. A tad bland with an ultimately flat story, characters, and writing, I do hope to see improvement upon the filmmaker’s efforts in the future. I’ll be supportive, but really this film brought nothing to the table for me it what felt like would make a better short film as more of a technical effort than a storytelling one.