Bleed with Me (2020)

(On Cable TV, April 2021) The same elements of a film can be interpreted very differently by various people. What’s meant as a slow-burn psychological horror with an ambiguous conclusion to some can be perceived by others as meandering pile in indecisive mumbling with no clear point. Bleed with Me certain courts that ambiguity — a low-budget horror film with three characters isolated in a cabin, it deliberately multiplies hints and suggestions that either the unreliable narrator is going crazy, or her friend is a blood-sucking vampire. Riding the Todorovian Express until the end, Bleed with Me isn’t doing itself any favours with low-end production values and a hazy directorial vision. The film’s elements are incredibly familiar, and the grimy execution adds very little interest to the proceedings. Some will probably like it a lot more than I did, but to me it exemplifies a kind of hellish indie-horror experience where nothing much happens even as writer/director Amelia Moses keeps trying to nudge us with “see? See? Aren’t you supposed to be spooked right now?” Alas, this is painfully trite stuff, and the film never has the guts to deliver a real finale. When an entire film takes place in unfocused dream logic, it can’t even go for a strong conclusion, because it just trained us to doubt anything it has to show us. Bleed with Me probably has a receptive public somewhere — but it’s not me.