First Impression: Bleeding

A 2024 film by Andrew Bell, Bleeding was shown at Grimmfest 2024, where we were warned of the dark tones in the film and it is dour but the dark, pretty nihilistic tone suits the film and the subject matter and the excellent acting makes it a great vampire film.

The film tracks addiction – and using the vampire as a simile for addiction is no new thing, of course, most obviously in the Addiction but also such films as I Pass for Human – and the impact addiction has on friends and family, as well as the societal impact. More than this it makes the blood of vampires the actual drug, leading to the exploitation of the turned – again, not new and used in vehicles such as Blade the Series (where it is more accurately the bone dust of a killed vampire) and True Blood. This is not a criticism – the genre builds upon itself – and Bell (who wrote, directed and plays an antagonist) created a fine vehicle in its own right.

John R. Howley as Eric

The film follows Eric (John R. Howley) a teen whose brother died from a vampire blood overdose – the lore within the film sees an OD leading to death and then turning, equally a bite can turn it appears – and whose mother is in a prescription drug haze. He has taken to breaking and entry – not to rob, however – and at the head of the film he goes to visit his cousin Sean (Jasper Jones). At the house he sees Sean’s dad, Hank, drinking at 10 AM – and, though not explored I assumed his drinking was a reaction to his work, plus there are themes touched on of domestic violence father to son. He shows Eric a video of a raid on a house where a young person has OD’d and the execution of the vampire. Later we hear he was the one who terminally took care of Eric’s brother.

Jasper Jones as Sean

Eric has come to get weed from Sean, who trades the weed for some of the mother’s prescription pills. We have seen Sean snort dust – the powdered form of blood (actually, how they make the dust is an impactful scene in the later film). He tells Eric to not smoke the weed in the house and then relents and tells him to blow the smoke out of the window. It goes wrong and Hank charges upstairs. Sean has a big brick of dust, loaned from dealer Dustin (Andrew Bell), to sell to get away from his dad. Hank finds it and scatters the dust to the wind. The boys smash one of the house windows before running off.

Tori Wong as Sara

Sean is in trouble, he owes Dustin $2k and Eric comes up with the idea of going out to the cabins on the edge of town, laying low and stealing contents from the rich owners to make the money back. They do break into a cabin and stumble across an imprisoned vampire, from Eric’s school, called Sara (Tori Wong), insensible during the day and reactive to the sun. Sean stabs her neck and drinks her blood, going into OD and so there is that to deal with, Dustin of course, as well as the person who imprisoned Sara and she wants to escape to Canada where they are treating vampirism as a disease and working towards a cure.

turning

The tone of the film never lets up, but the three primary leads absolutely give their all. Was this a horror film? Arguably it is a dark drama and yet the vampirism – which straddles a line between a consequence of actions and a supernatural condition – is less the horror, than the horror themes that stem from the society wrapped around it and, whether the issue is vampire blood or opioids, the impact of addiction on society (and vice versa) becomes the dark centre stage. What is great, however, is that the vampirism never feels tagged on but rather it is integral. I want to delve much deeper into this vehicle when the film is available for home consumption and will do a full review then.

The imdb page is here.