FILM REVIEW- BLOODTHIRSTY ( DIRECTED BY AMELIA MOSES)

3/11/2021

HORROR MOVIE REVIEW BLOODTHIRSTY ( DIRECTED BY AMELIA MOSES)

Kyle mentioned that we reviewed another film from this filmmaker that was selling itself as a vampire film… but there weren’t any vampires and the script didn’t have enough interesting things happening to warrant an 80 minute film.

Bloodthirsty

Grey is an indie singer who is having visions that she is a wolf. When she gets an invitation to work with notorious music producer Vaughn Daniels at his remote studio in the woods she begins to find out who she really is.

Director: Amelia Moses
Writers: Wendy Hill-Tout and Lowell
Starring: Lauren Beatty, Greg Bryk, Katharine King So, Michael Ironside

In order to give what we believe to be a more unbiased constructive criticism of the piece, the members of Bloodhound Pix are tackling each review as a panel of three. None of the members know the others’ thoughts on the content until after they submit their initial response.

Initial Reaction

J. Not gonna lie, I was pretty excited to find out this was a werewolf film before I saw it. The excitement didn’t last all that long after I hit “play” though. This had some of the worst werewolf make-up outside of The Howling 3 I’ve ever seen. It was laughable and really stood out in an awkward, bad way. This movie didn’t have a lot going on in terms of plot, so there were a lot of really lengthy scenes of pretty on-the-nose dialogue. You’ll see what I mean because this too stood out in an awkward, bad way. I felt like the logic of what plot there was seemed confounding as well. For example, and I won’t be specific so as not to spoil anything, but a character is on the verge of killing herself. Another character in the scene doesn’t want her to kill herself. Then after the suicidal character relents, the other character tries to kill her themself. What the fuck? Lotsa scenes of music that got really annoying really fast too. I suppose if you’re a fan of teeny bopper pop this won’t affect you. Speaking of logic again, the guy producing the album, Vaughn, is pretty much a creepy fucking weirdo from moment one and Grey still doesn’t wanna leave even though her girlfriend brings this up at about minute 40. And at minute 45. And at minute 50. And at minute 55. Unfortunately, the best thing going on in this is the 82 minute runtime. Fucker gets a 2 skull rating for that alone. Just joking.
1.5 SKULLS

K. Spoiler Alert: I love werewolf films

As we all do, so I’m always waiting for a good one to come along. Unfortunately, Bloodthirsty ain’t it.

We open on a close up of Grey (Lauren Beatty) ferociously biting into an animal. This is revealed to be a nightmare when Grey jolts awake in bed. She visits her psychiatrist, played by the great Michael Ironside, who is completely wasted in two scenes that bookend the film with perfunctory exposition. The point is that we discover Grey is taking medications to deal with her animalistic hallucinations.

Long story short she has an opportunity to work with a legendary music producer Vaughn Daniels, played by Greg Bryk who gives the best performance in the film. His backstory is that he was tried for murder, but aquitted. (Why would she go to this guy’s creepy secluded home in the wilds of Canada? Beats me.) Grey’s painter girlfriend Charlie (Katharine King So) tags to complete the hackneyed triumvirate of the protagonist-lover-seductive mentor or whatever aka we’ve seen this shit before. The hot shot music producer is going to alienate the girlfriend so he can have Grey all to himself.

I’ll leave it at that as far as the plot goes, though there is a decent twist down the road. It didn’t work because I wasn’t made to care about the characters, but hey, they tried. There are several problems here, least of which is that it’s a werewolf movie with about two brief scenes of werewolf actions, and we’ve seen better. In addition to that, Grey has no goal. She goes to Vaughn’s house ostensibly to further her music career, but she doesn’t seem greatly driven to achieve any kind of success or fame. Nor does she seem to want much of anything that would, I don’t know, involve the audience in her story.

So we get a lot of uninteresting scenes of music recording, melodramatic girlfriend drama, a few decent scenes of Vaughn building trust with Grey, some surreal imagery, extensive musical interludes, and a twist that could’ve had more impact. And that’s it. It’s boring, unmemorable and lacks any shred of excitement. (And it felt like a showcase for the original music). That being said, it is better than Amelia Moses’ first film Bleed with Me, which made death seem like a consummation devoutly to be wished for. This at least had a few good scenes with Greg Bryk lending a little gravitas to the proceedings. Moses excels with the indie character work, but doesn’t give her characters anywhere to go that is surprising or exciting. I know she didn’t write this film, that dubious honor goes to Wendy Hill-Tout and Lowell (Just one name? Yep. Okay….). But I think she should find a gifted writing partner who can give her a foundation to utilize her filmmaking talents because she is a competent filmmaker.

This is the end of my TedTalk. (0 out of 0, everyone loses, everyone dies)

Response

K. Obviously, I agree with Josh here. This film had a lot of problems despite the brisk runtime, chief among them was the lack of werewolves. That’s all I have to say about that.

J. Kyle mentioned that we reviewed another film from this filmmaker that was selling itself as a vampire film… but there weren’t any vampires and the script didn’t have enough interesting things happening to warrant an 80 minute film. Unfortunately, this one suffers from nearly identical issues… and is disguised as a music video showcase which doesn’t help anything.

Bloodhound’s average score: 1.5 out of 5