Bleed with Me

This has a lean cast (three people) and a lean runtime. It's an ambiguous slow burn with two impressive central performances (the third isn't bad either, but has less to do). If you like stripped-back horror that leaves things to your own interpretation then this is well worth your time.

The first 30 minutes of this movie is very good after that you keep scratching your head thinking to yourself hmm where's this plot going.

All the technical aspects are fine. Marshall does a great job of portraying an awkward introvert. It's just that the overall story is very thin and stretched out slowly. Couple and a new friend go off to a cabin, there's talking, lots of talking, I get they're establishing the characters but this drags out. Anyway, it's a "is this really happening or am I crazy?" plot once it gets going, and it does that part well. There's just not much to it to make for a solid film.

Bleed with Me (2020) was probably meant to be a short film.

Instead, what we got is 50 minutes of pure filler with mundane dialogue and scenes with supposedly disturbing imagery, which aren't going to impress a single horror fan.

After these, we get to a potentially usable plot point (which was done a million times, but ok), and then the film ends. It's like watching a series pilot (but with no cliffhanger) or a prequel to an interesting film that preps you on the more interesting events. Like if the main story wasn't the focus of the film.

If your story is so obvious and has no twist whatsoever - build up interesting dialogue, uncomfortable scenes, hints, anything that might interest the viewer, not just everyday talk that goes nowhere.

The main lead is just a "victim" type character that can be used to provide some interesting twists. The boyfriend could've been written out. He has nothing to do in the film at all.

Like, ok, great, you have this obsessive girl and her colleague who has never seen anything good in her life. Make a play around that, let them interact with each other, change each other. Wouldn't it be great if they would agree to live like that while the boyfriend wasn't into it, and eventually, they would kill him instead. Then, after some time, the supposed victim would become dominant in their relationship? It would've been at least something interesting.

If the idea was to fill the film with metaphors and allusions, why not go full arthouse so the viewers would not understand anything and think the film was just too clever for them?

I don't know. It looks like a tiny project, which is fine. But if you got a release, why not do your absolute best to impress the viewers? Do something crazy with your story?

Basically, the movie has the seeds of an interesting story, but it never develops, and even after 50 minutes of filler, the story doesn't go anywhere. The ending feels like absolutely nothing.

Good luck next time.

It's not a horror movie, it's a psychological movie. Get that out of the way first. A lot of reviewers are upset that there weren't zombies or vampires. And some seem upset about "diversity" and "women films," but we know where the come from so... yeah.

Both women in the cast are damaged in various ways, but one is definitely more damaged than the other, and the slow unfolding lets you know who that is (although I suppose there is some ambiguity if you would like to keep wondering at the end). I thought they did a great job of evolving the characters, dropping casually into the dialog little clues that explain the backstories and motivations of the characters.

Over all it is sad, not horrifying. It's not the greatest film ever made, but having spent a lot of Covid watching some truly terrible films, I thought this one was well worth the time spent watching.