BLEED

Produced by Jennifer Kessler Directed by Dennis Petersen and Devin Hamilton Written by Devin Hamilton Edited by Dennis Peterson Director of Photography - Mike King Maddy - Debbie Rochon Shawn - Danny Wolske Chris - Allen Nabors

Full Moon/Shadow Entertainment releases aren't generally known for the ability of their actors. Some thespians are going to get it right while others are so far off base that they might as well be sitting in the dugouts reading the classifieds. STITCHES is the only past Full Moon release that comes to mind where everyone involved brings an honest believability to their roles. Following in those footsteps is BLEED, a movie with a premise so preposterous that I'm sure it will be scorned for years to come, but with acting so skilled and dead on that it actually works.

In my favorite performance of hers to date, Debbie Rochon plays the mentally unbalanced Maddy, a woman so detached from reality that she believes her new friends are actually part of a "Murder Club." Wanting to fit in and become part of the "inner circle", Maddy is willing to do whatever it takes to kill someone. The effects of her abused childhood ring with such force that she's unable to tell right from wrong when social acceptance is at stake.

Directors Devin Hamilton and Dennis Petterson truly buy into the psychology that "monsters are made" and not born. That they are products of their environment and not simply born bad, something I tend to disagree with, but only to a degree. You can teach a child right from wrong, but the thrill they receive from the crime is anything BUT a learned concept. Guilt stems from upbringing, enjoyment is inherent in the beast. Why else would a Priest molest a young boy and then torture himself by lying to himself that it ever happened?

Maddy's need for social acceptance makes her easy prey for the free-wheeling frat crowd she chooses to befriend. She questions their bullsh*t regarding The Murder Club, but her need creates blinders concealing the obvious truth. Despite her obvious flaws surrounding reality, Maddy's a sympathetic character who is only looking for love in a world of parasites. When Maddy finally does commit murder, it's a saddening affair for the audience who, like Maddy, believe she's finally found a place in life where she can be happy.

Once Maddy has crosses the line and eventually starts out on the road to redemption, directors Hamilton and Peterson throw a curve ball with a smattering of Italian Giallo. It turns out someone in the circle of friends truly is a murder and starts picking them off one by one. It's up to Maddy to figure out who it is before she's either knifed herself or set up for the fall.

Rounding out the primary actors are Danny Wolske and Allen Nabors, both playing suitors vying for Maddy's affections. The two men look like they stepped out of a GQ magazine, all airbrushed and chiseled. The rest of the supporting cast is equally as good looking. In fact, they're so attractive I found myself rooting for them to die. It's complete jealousy on my part, I won't even try to deny it. I was even more sicked when I found out they all could act at a caliber far higher than the standard soap opera level usually found in these productions.

Damn it, why did the movie have to be so good?

The dvd is easily the best non-Tempe related disc release by Full Moon. Short of a commentary trach, the disc is jam-packed with bios, trailers, deleted and extended scenes, rehearsal footage, audition footage, and two short films masquerading as Easter eggs, one by writer-director Hamilton, the other by editor-director Peterson. If a commentary were present I'd be inclined to call this a perfect disc, as it stands, nearly perfect. It's not a bad movie either, a package worth buying. ">Dark West Films

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