★ 10 / 10
***** (5 Stars) AN EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE BUY. Very
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***** (5 Stars) AN EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE BUY. Very Strong, Interesting, Different, & Told With Purpose. A very nice surprise! A new type of story and…
***** (5 Stars)
AN EXTREMELY WORTHWHILE BUY.
Very Strong, Interesting, Different, & Told With Purpose.
A very nice surprise!
A new type of story and storytelling, within at least two recognizable genres.
I will watch more than twice for sure.
The drama moments are good, and real. The deaths are quick, yet moving.
I felt very sad and empathetic for the dying victims.
I felt like I could not predict the behaviors of the antagonists, which I feel is a good thing in a drama/mystery/thriller. The pacing is earned and appropriate, and many many small moments build upon themselves into a very effective blending of emotions and eeriness and fantasy.
Co-writer and Director Brendan Murphy deserved to place himself among the leads, in what is truly an ensemble group effort by the cast members. Even small characters have their moments. The other lead characters played by James Craven, Dallas Thomas, Melissa Aguirre Fernandez, and Hector Ayala, seem to almost evenly split the running time (with Murphy) to further deserving results of strong, subtle character-building.
A restrained style enhances this deliberate pacing, and yet there is also a near-constant goth style and vibe alongside the more dominant classical staging applied to most dialogue scenes. This puts the emotional core of both Human and not-so-Human characters first and foremost, respecting those small moments; some of the best of which are long, silent moments of characters moving, scheming, or just staring.
It's nice to see a movie that exists in a world where the characters have watched movies, and are aware of pop culture. Even though they fully live in the film's hybrid genres, the people do live, and "breath" (until they don't). *A reference to a truly-affecting death scene: a moving, disturbing, reminder of how the movie absorbs.*
I thought the ending was excellent. Great movie.
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★ 3 / 10
Promising Vampire Scenario Suffers from Micro-Budget Treatment
jfrentzen-942-204211
Shot in and around barren locations, in stairwells and alleyways in Tucson, Arizona, BLOOD WIDOW offers an intriguing plot and a decent script that deserved a…
Shot in and around barren locations, in stairwells and alleyways in Tucson, Arizona, BLOOD WIDOW offers an intriguing plot and a decent script that deserved a bigger, better production. We follow a serial killer-turned-vampire who encounters a small group of bloodsuckers intent upon resurrecting their kind in a modern setting. Two hardened police detectives chase down the clues, to a tragic end. Director-co-writer-costar Brendan Murphy has constructed a few effective scenes -- the ballerina's death sequence is a stand-out -- but for every decent scene there are around ten that don't come off, including a ridiculous nightclub scene and a lot of slow-moving procedural dramatics. A quick shooting schedule is evident. The actions scenes are far too ambitious for the movie to pull off given the limitations of the micro-budget. Additionally, most of the actors are either under-rehearsed or plain incompetent. However, James Craven is notably quite good as the elder detective who enlivens all the scenes he is in; and Melissa Aguirre Fernandez is a strong presence as the lead vampire.
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yes i agree