Blood on Her Name

I saw this streaming for free on 'Freevee', so I gave it a shot.

I wasn't expecting much from a free movie, but this was really good.

An engaging little story, very well acted by a great cast. Is a little bit slow in places, but gives you enough on-screen to keep you interested. A few plot twists and things you don't expect, keep you guessing right until the very end.

All in all, a solid film.

In its 85-minute runtime, this air-tight and confident directional debut, an exercise in Midwestern small town murder and revenge neo-noir, manages to do a whole lot, pleasantly surprisingly so. "Blood on Her Name" is primarily a character study, a study of guilt and remorse that shows how most of us could never cope with having committed a terrible and immoral crime. Compelling and tense story and its morale center teams with the equally compelling lead performance to highlight this top tier indie thriller.

In "Blood on Her Name" Leigh, a single mom with enough trouble on her shoulders, finds herself crumbling down in panic after having accidentally killed someone. Guilt takes over quickly and chaos ensues as she chooses to deliver the dead man's body to his family. It's a tightly made, consistently engaging movie, despite the plot being relatively small-scale and on simple terms. Via director's careful attention to the character's emotions and morales, dilemmas and the search for what's right, "Blood on Her Name" goes a level deeper and draws the viewer into experiencing the dark side of the human, a person in trouble, her actions and consequences. Morally complex rather than complex story-wise. "Blood on Her Name" is, by all standards, a bleak drama/thriller, filled with unrelenting tension and completely devoid of humor, which some might find that a little problematic. The movie is further supported by authentic performances, most notably the lead one, by Bethany Anne Lind. Will Patton offers up another good version of his seemingly frequent character of a bad-man-in-disguise & main cast is concluded with equally good work by Elisabeth Rohm, Jared Ivers and Jimmy Gonzales. Visually "Blood on Her Name" might not be a stand-out of any kind, but it is undeniably shot and edited competently and effectively, further atmospherically tweaked with a subtle original score and befittingly grey and dirty color grading.

In the niche of southern gothic / small town murder / down-and-dirty psychological thriller and such, "Blood on Her Name" is great addition. Coincidentally, another spiritually very similar movie tcame out the same day as "Blood on Her Name" - "Disappearance at Clifton Hill". It has really been a great day for indie thrillers. My rating: 7/10.

"Blood On Her Name" is a good example of the incredible tensions that could be created to present a full feature film with decent pacing and actors when the budget is less than what you'd spend on a family of six at Walmart on a weekend shopping spree. When compared to, say, a 100 million Hollywood blockbuster, the entertainment value still persists. So, yes, this film is recommended and I'm not aligned with anyone who created it.

The very beginning may make you think you missed something, but it soon falls perfectly into place, and then it just grabs your attention, and you can't help but get invested into it. All of the characters make sense, there's no added storyline used as filler, and any plot holes is filled before the movie ends. I wanted to give it 10 stars, but I had a personal problem with the very end. It makes complete sense, and in many ways, the ending should earn it that 10th star, but I held back, only for personal reasons that I cannot say, without spoiling the whole movie. This is a must see noir, suspenseful thrill ride, that deserves much higher ratings than it has here.

Good job by the cast and crew, but why even make a film about such a bland story? Those efforts could be put somewhere else.