"Bloodwine" Review -- Written by Anthony Thurber

Bloodwine
Year: 2008
Director: Patrick Keith
Stars: Melissa Johnson, Lora Meins, Vanessa Leinani
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Studio: Doom Bunny Films
Running Time: 104 Mins
Official Website: http://www.bloodwinemovie.com/




Bloodwine focuses on Andrea (Melissa Johnson), a Goth college woman who’s dealing with the tragedies that’s happened to her, in her life. Soon her best friend, Brandy (Lora Meins) re-enters her life when she moves into her dorm. Andrea finally has a reason to feel better about herself. But things take a turn for worst, when she meet a mysterious woman (Vanessa Leinani) that causes a gift for her best friend to go horribly wrong. Soon, Andrea must make a tough choice that has dire consequences that will affect her and Brandy lives and friendship forever.

I’m starting to notice in the last couple of months that there been a lot of female character driven horror films that have been circling around in the indie/ horror scene in both the festival and DVD market. And yet I still have a couple of more that are sitting on my shelf and waiting to be reviewed. One of the things that makes these films very good, is the fact that the women aren’t exploited, like the horror films of past, instead they focus of the troubles that these characters in a serious manner. This film does a very good job on focusing on the characters.

Bloodwine is the best vampire film that I’ve seen this year, so far. Director Patrick Keith’s direction was very good. He brought a dark and gothic tone, in the presentation of the film. The tone helps make up for the lack of action that’s required in a vampire film. The tone felt like something that you’d see in Ann Rice or H.P Lovecraft based film. I like also how he approaches the characters in the film. It really helped contribute to the dramatic aspects, which was needed to offset all the action. His direction of his actresses was very good. Patrick Keith polishes the actresses performances, so it’s more serious to the tone, in which he’s making this film.

The acting in this film was very good, as the film had two great lead performances from Melissa Johnson and Lora Meins. They both did a very good job building chemistry with one another, as they sold the friendship very well. The two actresses also did a great job with their characters. I thought, Johnson played Andrea extraordinarily well. I liked how she makes her character dark and conflicted with past events that the character has been through. She does that, so that you in tuned to what the character is going through. Also, I liked how Lora Meins plays her character, as she so sweet and innocent, in the beginning of film then slowly makes her character dark, and sexy, which made the drama and horror elements of the film very effective.

The screenplay Patrick Keith and his wife Vickie Morgan–Keith was very dark and gothic. One of the things that the couple does well with the screenplay, was to make the story go around in a circle. I like this method of storytelling, because you don’t know the main reason to why the events of the beginning happened. Right there, it makes you interested in the story. They also develop their characters very well, as I was interested in the story even though there wasn’t a lot of action in this film. The reason for that is that the screenwriters wanted to focus on atmosphere and the characters, instead of having to use abundant amounts of blood and force the action at the expense of the development of the story, which would have taken away from the film’s gothic and bleak tone.

Bloodwine is a dark and gothic vampire film that has a lot a bite to it.

Review Rating: 5 Stars