Horror Movie Review: Bleed (2002)

Bleed is a bit of an odd one. It has all the makings of your bog-standard slasher horror. One with a predictable twist. However, it tells a fairly interesting story that has you wondering just what is actually going on for a while.

Maddy (Debbie Rochon) is new in town and struggles to connect with people. Having constant nightmares and being a bit mentally unstable will do that to you. She manages to get a new job and meets Shawn (Danny Wolske). The pair quickly start a relationship and it’s not long before he is taking her to a pool party to meet his friends.

A bunch of brainless childish young men and women who enjoy playing pranks, saying ‘bro’ a lot and exposing their breasts/six-packs. This entire pool scene is painful to watch, not because the acting is bad but rather how awful the characters are…every single one them.

When it finally ends, it’s some time later and the group are now in a hot-tub. Hold on tight, things are about to get strange.

As the group discuss their friendship, in the most cavalier of ways, they reveal they are in a ‘murder club’. What’s that you say? It’s exactly how it sounds. They murder people, cover it up and provide airtight alibis for each other. Just like Maddy, you’ll be watching and waiting for the”ha-ha-ha, we’re only joking, we sure fooled you” punchline but it never comes. They go into more and more detail and swear Maddy to secrecy.

She’s very confused as you can imagine but she really likes Shawn and really wants to be part of the club/gang. How far will she go to fit in? Oh, and there is a masked killer who starts to murder the members of the murder club too.

Who is behind the mask? All will be revealed come the films disappointing climax.

Bleed is an alright film, short enough and well paced enough to hold attention spans. The mystery behind the killer isn’t exactly a big deal and the film treats it like so for most of its run-time. Instead focusing on Maddy and the murder club. Sure, it plays its best cards early on in relation to the latter but the stakes get risen several times by characters making ‘odd’ choices. We say odd because without them we wouldn’t have much of a film at all.

Of course we also have a bunch of filler dream scenes that pad the run-time. Look out for Brinke Stevens and Lloyd Kaufman in cameo roles here.

With a bunch of competent actors and actresses who are all willing to show off their skin, limited but effective kills and a couple of fun deviations along the road, Bleed is better then you might expect. That doesn’t make it a classic by any stretch but many will get a kick out if it.