BLOOD SHINE
**
Directed by Emily Bennett & Justin Brooks.
Starring Emily Bennett, David Call, Brendan Sexton III.
Horror, US, 100 Minutes.
Reviewed as part of FrightFest 2025 - World Premiere
Intriguing elements sparkle through Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks intriguing horror which skirts with both folk horror and the torture genre, although never becoming as graphic to be slapped with the tortture porn label that was once so abundant in the genre years ago. Even the folk horror aspects here are so scattershot that the film is too drawn out with its paper thin script that it never really settles on any one genre to any satisfying degree.
The film starts out promisingly, with Brendan Sexton III ex-convict losing his farming job then driving cross country in a desperate search for work. His encounter with Emily Bennett’s Clara, a welcoming and perhaps far too trusting woman living on her own, bristles with a real tension where we are left wondering what these characters are truly capable of and what their true interests are in each other. It is such a pity then that this intriguing set-up is abandoned and we then follow horror film director Brighton West, played by David Call, in his far less interesting story of a horror film director looking for inspiration to direct a passion project. In a bid to concentrate fully on his work and abandon his distracting vices, he drives out to the remote countryside where he encounters a familiar face who will change his life in horrifying and strange ways.
Despite the presence of indie-horror legends Larry Fessenden and Toby Poser, there simply isn’t enough going on here to hold the viewer's attention. What could have been a dynamite short film is stretched out to one hundred minutes with repetitive scenes of torture and thwarted escapes and Bennet dancing carefree with a ribbon in a nice looking garden, before culminating in an otherwise intriguing conclusion. As co-director, Bennet, along with Justin Brooks struggle to come up with a plot or storyline that engages the viewer, but her performance, along with Call’s, develops into something more interesting as the film goes on.
As a character piece, BLOOD SHINE has some interesting things to say but as a horror film it fails to engage on most levels despite its promising opening act which promises something far more interesting.
Iain MacLeod