Starring Emily Bennett, David Call and Larry Fessenden
Written and directed by Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks
Dark Sky Films
Cults may not be all they’re cracked up to be.* For all of their brainwashing, promises of enlightenment and prescribed worship, they tend to at least promise community and belonging. BLOOD SHINE shows the horror and solidarity that religious cults can fabricate. It also takes a small step into offering a selling point of cults that might not have been proposed yet: What if the leader was Larry Fessenden?
BLOOD SHINE starts with a farmhand (Brendan Sexton III, from WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE and EMPIRE RECORDS) in the midst of some bad luck. He loses his job and has to travel to a further farm overnight in hopes of finding someone willing to hire a guy with a record. When his car breaks down near a house tended to by a beautiful young woman, Clara (Emily Bennett, who wrote and directed with Justin Brooks), he thinks his luck has changed. It sure has not.
Next, we meet Brighton West (David Call). We know right off the bat this guy is an asshole because he directs Hollywood-slop franchise films, uses his first and last name in every introduction and holds his sliver of power on this Earth to abuse women. Gross, right? Well, heap onto that shitpile the fact that he’s under the impression he is some sort of tortured artist, and we just cannot wait for him to be Clara’s next victim.
Much of the rest of the film is spent with Clara and Brighton as they interact and coexist through Clara’s version of faith. She watches VHS tapes of her Leader (Fessenden) on an old television and also projects them in Brighton’s captive dungeon. Though not physically present in the farmhouse with them, there is no escaping the reach of this Leader through his hold on Clara. She believes that she is doing his bidding and earning eternal light through her torture of Brighton. At least, she wants to believe.
The rifts and imperfections of Clara’s dedication to the cause are some of the more brilliant and insightful moments in BLOOD SHINE. So often cults, or religion in general, are portrayed in media as a light switch with two modes: You believe or you don’t. But nearly every human with critical thinking capabilities knows that faith is more of a spectrum worthy of a dimmer than a toggle. Clara wants so badly to believe, and is going through the acts with great purpose, but in her moments alone we are allowed to see her hesitation. Little difference that hesitation makes to Brighton while he is bloodied and chained in her attic…
This separation and isolation is a recurring visual and theme throughout BLOOD SHINE. Clara seeks salvation, though she is almost always alone in this pursuit. Brighton is tortured by his unconsenting isolation, but prior to that he was not what anyone could describe as a social butterfly. Two lonely people looking for connection with bloody and violent conclusions. BLOOD SHINE also does its fair part to question the cult of cinema. From Brighton’s casting couch to Clara’s worship of a tube TV, each has an intimate and problematic relationship with screens and what is on them. All of the projected fears and dictations are shown to carry far more weight than they have earned.
BLOOD SHINE is not a thriller or a splatterfest, though it does serve horror through contemplation, correlation and extreme beliefs. The methodical pace and complex characters are part of a slow build and a dark conclusion, well worthy of fright fans’ attention.
* Note: cults are, in fact, blights on humanity. Please don’t come after me for my cheeky intro.
