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Bleed (2002): DVD Review Starring: Debbie Rochon by Richard Leigh 
There was a time when I would spend my days browsing through Ebay, waiting to pick up a bargain of a horror film. Sometimes I was successful, most of the time however I ended up buying some absolute rubbish. 'Bleed' is one such example of a purchase of mine that falls into the latter category, a film that since buying I have watched a grand total of once. I don't know what I was thinking with this one really, it certainly didn't sound very good and the cover is completely naff. Sometimes looks can be deceiving though, and when you're an Ebay addict you tend not to care of the quality of stock you are purchasing.
On the front of this DVD are quotes from two sources, well I say sources but it's actually just the names of two people. M.J. Factman says that "The killing scenes are possibly the most gory I've ever seen", whilst J.D. Casey states that this film is "Not for the faint of heart". Researching I found that J.D. Casey is the writer, director and producer of a little known film called 'We're Coming To Help'. On an average of 33 votes by users of the Internet Movie Database the film is rated 2.3/10, I've not seen the DVD case to Mr Casey's film, but perhaps there is a similarly suspicious quote on there from director of 'Bleed' Dennis Petersen. I can find no record of an M.J. Factman, but to me this name sounds completely fake anyway so the man with the facts is no doubt a fictional creation. Personally I say that they should scrap the quotes that they've got and replace them with an R. Leigh quote such as "What a load of rubbish", the DVD probably wouldn't sell as many copies but at least it would give the viewer a more accurate expectation. The basic premise of the film 'Bleed' is that one evening a young woman named Maddy attends a party with her new boyfriend and gets to know all of his friends there. They inform her of the 'Murder Club' to which they all belong, a club that Maddy really wants to join as soon as possible having heard about it. Before long though the members of the 'Murder Gang' are picked off one by one in a murderous rampage, but who is doing it? Could it be an inside job of the 'Murder Gang' or is it an outsider, Maddy just doesn't know and therefore the reality here is that she can trust absolutely no one. The film begins badly, the acting is awkward, the dialogue is dreadful and nothing seems to run smoothly about this film whatsoever. Everyone just seems a little nervous in their parts here, acting seems to come naturally to no one involved and every performance is extremely disappointing. Debbie Rochon who plays the part of Maddy has appeared in a large number of films that I've never heard of, she also oddly enough appeared in the additional scenes that were added to George A. Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead' in 1999. All I can imagine is that her part must have been incredibly small, perhaps she was an extra or even a zombie; all she has experience of really in her career is horror B-Movies and erotic films, quite a poor boast really given that she has appeared in near on 150 films. You'd think that she'd have more talent than she does after appearing in so many, but sadly neither her nor any of the other cast members in 'Bleed' seem at all capable of putting in an impressive performance. What I do find quite amusing though is that Debbie Rochon actually featured in the one film of J.D. Casey; I knew there must have been a connection here somewhere. The narrative development here is incredibly weak, the film is predictable and never do you feel at all scared as you watch the film unfold. The scariest aspect about 'Bleed' is probably the acting, the film is lifeless and never does it seem to include any sort of excitement whatsoever. It's supremely dull and the image quality is really quite grainy. It is clear that there was not much of a budget here and to tell you the truth I'm glad that this is the case. Had any great deal of money gone into the making of this film and they'd still come up with this then you'd have to question where the money was squandered, given the poor quality that it is though this is somewhat more understand and forgiveable. That said, $45 000 was still wasted on the creation of this film, and when you consider that 'The Blair Witch Project' cost a mere $22 000 and went on to gross a massive $248 million, it's still quite a poor effort here. By no means am I saying that 'The Blair Witch Project' deserves to have made that much, but it just shows proof that you don't need to spend a lot of money to put forward a film that a lot of people are interested in. There is a reason why films like this go straight to DVD, no one in their right mind would ever give this sort of bilge an official screening and for this I am really quite grateful. If I turned up at the cinema and was greeted with a film like this then I'd be demanding an instant refund without a shadow of a doubt. Everything about 'Bleed' is awful, in no way could I ever possibly justify a recommendation of this film but on the plus side the disc does make quite a good Frisbee. Starting life as 'The Murder Club', later becoming 'Make Em Bleed' and ending up as simply 'Bleed'; this film should never really have been made and had it not been then this would have saved $45 000 being wasted. Film 2000 is the studio guilty of releasing 'Bleed' in the UK with their 'Shock Horror Collection', and I think the name says it all really about the quality of this film. Were I to take a hand-held camera and film my own horror making the script up as I went then I think that the end result would probably be a more enjoyable feature than that of 'Creep'. It would cost a lot less than $45 000 to make as well; bargain. Included here as extras for the DVD are 10 deleted scenes and a trailer also. The deleted scenes are all terrible, and as they run the tracking time comes up on screen for all to see. It would seem from looking at this that over 16 hours worth of recording were caught on tape and yet the film that has been put together here was the best that they could come up with. When the 97 minutes that are featured in this film are this terrible, it doesn't even bear thinking about as to how bad the remaining 15 or so hours of film were. The ten deleted scenes give us an indication of what the deleted scenes were like though, and in truth they're not really much different to those that were included in the film in fairness. I guess when the end product is so poor, you really have very little to live up to and for the deleted scenes to have been worse this really would have taken some doing. As for the trailer; it basically gives away the whole film, all of the deaths are shown and by process of elimination you are therefore made aware of the killer. No wonder this was never given a cinematic release, what reason would any viewer have in going to see a film in which the trailer has already told everything; the cinemas would have been bare.  Rating: 1 out of 5 Details about the film: |
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