Tags:
Film: Bloodplay
Year: 2018
Director: Abhishek Das
Writer: Abhishek Das
Starring: Abhishek Das, Deepak Da and Aditya Da
Review:
This was a short film that I got the chance to check out when Puppo Das reached out via Facebook to see if I would check out this short film. I was hooked knowing it was horror, but he also said that it was a slasher from India. Not a place where you get movies like this, so that intrigued me to check it out.
Synopsis: a murderous week of a mental patient suffering from suicidal tendencies and goes missing without a trace.
Now much like slasher films, this doesn’t have the deepest story. We have Abhishek Das playing our suicidal character. We see that he’s on the roof of a building, having slit his wrist with a straight razor. A friend comes looking for him and panics when he sees what he’s done. He drags him inside and calls for help. The problem is that Abhishek is just getting started.
Where I’ll start is with the positives. I thought that this did good things by ramping up the violence and the practical effects used. What is used borders going into exploitation. Now I’m not a ‘gore hound’, but this leans into doing what they know they can do. The only drawback would be in the beginning, there should be more blood from the wound. I’m not going to hold that against the short film though. My guess is that they don’t have the biggest budget and working with what they can. So, I’ll credit there.
As someone who focuses on the story when watching things, I do wish this was fleshed out more. The title on YouTube, where I watched this, has the line ‘It’s not inside your head, but it’s inside your blood’. There is a recurring motif here where Abhishek is using a syringe to take out blood from his victim. He also sticks his finger in a wound as well. I do think it would add a layer if we figured out why. The excuse that he’s insane isn’t enough for me. I just need more for this work.
Another aspect is that we have characters doing things and nothing comes of it. There is the opening person who is attacked that calls for help. What we see, no one shows. Then we have two characters who are in the area to collect taxes. They see that something is wrong with Abhishek. The one goes to help him and then disappears. There are others who call their friends to help and days go by, but we don’t see if they come. It just feels like plot devices to progress the story, but nothing comes of it. Again, I just need more here to work.
I’ll then go to the acting. I do think that what we get is fine. Since the characters aren’t fleshed out, we don’t know much about them. This does stay in line with low budget slashers. If we aren’t going to develop more of a story, then we need the characters to have backstories to help. That is one thing I look for to make slashers work. I do think this is lacking, but I’m not going to harp on the performances. They were fine while being attacked.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I’d already said that the effects were good. Just slight nitpicks there. I’ll say that I thought the setting of this dark and creepy apartment was good. The cinematography helps capture that. We are limited to the angles and movement, but that’s fine. This borders more on being something more exploitative and violent. There’s a grittiness that comes there that works for me. I thought the sound design worked for the screams. I don’t remember much of the soundtrack, but it didn’t take me out thought either.
In conclusion, I’d say that this is a decent low budget slasher. I like that this is a short. There are elements here that can be fleshed out into something longer if they like. The bright spots here are the effects, cinematography and setting. There are just nitpicks that I have there. I thought that the characters showed fear and terror of what is happening. Abhishek worked as this crazed individual. I’d only recommend to fans of more exploitation cinema and gore hounds. I think that there are things here you’d enjoy.
My Rating: 4.5 out of 10
To Watch: Bloodplay