Bloodbeat (1983)

Created by one-time filmmaker Fabrice Zaphiratos with money from his girlfriend at the time, Bloodbeat is a particularly rough-hewn example of the kind of unique cinematic passion project that I love to see. It tells the story of an endlessly dysfunctional family reconvening to spend a quiet Christmas together, something which is utterly spoiled by a series of violent murders that seem to be growing ever closer to them and their home. Though they're a much stronger family unit than they initially appear to be, can our heroes really get along with one another long enough to deal with the maniac prowling their neighborhood? Or will they be turned into mincemeat like their friends and neighbors? 

The first character we're introduced to is Gary, a self-described 'good ol' boy' who spends his time hunting and watching TV with headphones in his easy chair. In one of his first scenes, we learn that he and the mother of this family, Cathy, are not married; just dating. Cathy seems more than happy to let things stay that way for the time being, and Gary is not. Still, he mostly keeps it to himself. 

Cathy spends most of her time locked in a spare room, painting abstract paintings in what is described as a trance, but she and Gary still sport a fairly strong relationship, something which is even clearer when Mom's children arrive and we see how well they all get along. Only thing is, prodigal son Ted brings along his new squeeze, Sarah, and his mother is not happy about it. There is tension the moment the two meet, something that initially comes off as jealousy or something more puritanical but is eventually revealed to be more like an instinctual distrust. The feeling is mutual though, as Sarah seems to be attuned to some kind of supernatural force the moment she walks into the house, only adding to her sense of alienation from the family's holiday rituals.

This leaves poor Ted in a predicament; torn between his crazy mother and similarly-crazy girlfriend, the guy just cannot catch a break. Both women are suspicious of the other, and seem to know more about the whole prowling murderer thing than they're letting on. Oh, and then there's Dolly, Ted's sister. Not much to say about her except that she comes off, at first anyway, as resourceful, and unafraid to get her hands dirty, something which changes almost as soon as she's placed in danger, after which she becomes a shrieking damsel of no real distinction. This motley crew of "heroes" is ill-equipped to handle anything as serious as a bedsheet ghost, not to mention a vengeful warrior spirit, but they will have to rise to the challenge if they want to survive the night in one piece.

The first hint of how truly whacked-out this film is is the decision to cast its ghostly killer as an honest-to-god feudal Japanese samurai, loose in rural Wisconsin of all places. In the eighties. There are reports that director Fabrice Zaphiratos was, let's say, partaking at the time that he made the film, and I believe it. Even he, years later, seems to be more than a little unsure of what he was on about at the time. The influence from comic books is pretty clear as well when you look into the guy's background. Yes, it's the kind of bizarre high concept that demands answers, primarily why and how, but we'll get to that later. For now, all you need to know is that it's a bizarre thing to base a horror film around. 

The film teases us, showing the Mom and Sarah engaged in suspicion of one another, and emphasizing their similarities and psychic attunement in multiple scenes. While the concept would seemingly preclude either of them from being responsible, given that neither appears to be a classical-trained samurai, it eventually becomes clear that one or the other will be end up being revealed as the killer during the climax, come hell or high water. This teasing goes on for about an hour before chaos breaks out and our carefully constructed narrative house of cards comes abruptly crumbling down. You'd almost think that this was the climax of the film, but that's only true in the sense that the wind just goes right out of the whole story after this point, with one-third of the film still left to go! This is a serious structural issue that leaves us exhausted and ready to be done with the film by the time the actual climax comes around.

I guess there's no point in holding back any longer, I found this film fairly dull and lacking in anything that I come to horror films for. I generally have a soft spot for Christmas horror films, but this isn't a Christmas horror film. There are no Christmas songs, no subversion of Christmas iconography, and very little in the way of thematic content relating to family. Oh sure, the film stars a family, and a fucked up one at that, but it's never adequately explored or lampshaded and rather just feels incidental. I can get behind campy horror films as well, but this isn't that kind of laugh-out-loud shlock piece. 

And of course, I love to sink my teeth into a good narrative, but a good narrative requires there to be some kind of payoff to a film's worth of questions and whacked-out WTF moments, and in this sense, Bloodbeat is a complete and total failure. I can do obscure, but this is more like obscured seeing as the one scene that purported to give us answers was completely drowned out by the often-obnoxious score. Yes, in its final reveal scene, barely even a single line can be made out: even the subtitles make no attempt to transcribe this scene except where what's being said becomes briefly obvious for one second or two before dropping right back out again. Whatever it is the mother is blathering on about in that scene seems awfully important, and even crucial to understanding and enjoying the narrative, but alas, like the hideously low-res end titles, this bit of the film seems more or less lost at this point. Even in the commentary track, little is elucidated; if anything, the questions only become that much more frustrating because you realize the man who made the thing probably doesn't know the answers himself.

What's the significance of both Cathy and Sarah being so disturbed by seeing a dead deer, when it's remarked early on by Gary that Cathy has seen plenty of dead deer before and shouldn't be so bothered by it? Why is there a sexual connection between the killings and Sarah? How can the killer be out doing murder while the member of the household who ends up being responsible is sitting in the living room with everyone else? What does Mom mean when she says that 'He' wouldn't let her or her family be hurt, something which disturbs Ted to no end and then is never followed up on? Why is the house full of ancient bronze sculpture? Is Mom some kind of immortal being or does she simply know of everything that's happened in her family history since the dawn of the millennium? And last but not least, what does anything of this have to do with stock footage of WWII, especially shots of nuclear detonation? 

This is the only thing in the reveal that doesn't rely upon the indecipherable speech from the principal players in the scene, and yet, on its own, still makes zero sense. It's especially frustrating because one can feel the tenuous connection between historical retribution, the debut of nuclear warfare during WWII, and Japanese samurai; but without further fuel, it doesn't amount to much more than the beginnings of an interesting idea. Don't get me wrong, I love a film that leaves me with lots to think about after it's over, but not to this extent. Not to the point where I feel cheated of any kind of narrative satisfaction, especially when its Scanners-esque finale isn't worth the tortuous setting up of these elements either. I'm just left wondering, what's the bare minimum a movie has to have to be entertaining or worth your time? Because whatever the answer is, this ain't cutting it. That much is abundantly clear to me both while watching and now that I'm sitting here writing it all up.

The presentation, while charming in the sense that it often feels like something done up by a child, from the special effects, to the cinematography, to the decision to mix and match a cheap synth and effects pedal score with truly memetic classical music. It reminds me a little of Hausu, the immortal Japanese cult hit, although Bloodbeat is far less entertaining overall. I don't mind all the clumsy attempts at style or attempts to liven things up, but they're often too little, too late. Most of this film is dead rural landscape and dull pacing, and no amount of crayoned-in psychic warfare in the last five minutes of the film can fix that. That's not to say it doesn't have its fun moments, or even moments where things click from time to time, but by the time the film was over, I had tired of every element and just wanted it to be through with. Great transfer from Vinegar Syndrome, though. The image quality here puts most Criterion releases to shame. 

Bloodbeat is a film I did not care for in the least, but I do appreciate its effort at doing its own thing. It's the epitome of indie filmmaking; I want X in my movie, but I also want Y and Z in there too. With no one but himself to amuse, Fabrice Ziphiratos created something utterly singular, if equally crap. Don't listen to what fans of this film trying to make it into a new cult film are saying about it being in any way Lynchian or surreal; it's surreal in the sense that any number of awful films are surreal in their utter contempt for the art of storytelling or any standard for normal human behavior: not because of a knack for nightmarish imagination. It seems memorable because of how insane the last third ends up being, but I'm not sure I expect to remember much of any of the details of the story later on down the line, especially seeing as I didn't understand a word of any of it. Its heart was in the right place, and I feel bad for saying this about such a harmless indie production, but that's just how I felt. Different strokes I suppose. By all means, give it a whirl if you're particularly desperate for another cheap slasher movie to add to your collection; but most everyone else, horror fanatic or not, would be well advised to give it a wide berth.