Back in 2021, filmmakers Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks released their joint feature debut, a single-location psychological horror called Alone With You. That film, which follows a young woman’s descent into insanity after she becomes trapped alone in her apartment, was a creepier and more effective genre affair than many of its “made-in-lockdown” peers. Flash-forward to the present day and the directorial duo are bringing their sophomore horror feature Blood Shine to London’s FrightFest for its World Premiere.
This tale of isolation, religious fanaticism, and how light can blind and obscure just as easily as darkness, follows Brighton West (David Call – Insidious: The Red Door), a “dude-bro” horror director who moves to the countryside in search of inspiration for his latest project. When Brighton is knocked unconscious during a woodland hike, he finds himself saved by a hermetic local girl called Clara (played by director Bennett, who also appears in the highly-anticipated Shelby Oaks). Unfortunately, she’s a religious zealot who’s part of a fringe, sunlight-worshipping sect, and Brighton soon finds himself captured and repeatedly tortured in a series of bizarre rituals. Clara believes that she has been tasked with carrying out these actions in order to turn her captive into a “god”, and Brighton must either escape with his life or face a fate worse than death.
Blood Shine begins with a very strong “cold open” sequence that features a brief, yet deeply effective performance from actor Michael T. Downey as Dave – a farm hand and ex-convict who has a really curious and interesting dynamic with Clara. It’s a quietly impressive and deeply promising start, but the film never fully reaches those heights again – in spite of some great (yet deeply under-utilised), performances from indie genre greats like Toby Poser (Hellbender), and Larry Fessenden (We Are Still Here). Meanwhile, Call plays a believable douchebag director, but he just isn’t that compelling a character beyond that fact, and it’s nigh-impossible to sympathise with him even when the story desperately wants you to. Brighton is a misogynistic, predatory creep – which isn’t an inherently bad quality for a horror film character who’s designed to be put through the wringer, but he doesn’t particularly grow or change by the point that the film expects us to feel for him. This makes the small moments where he “turns the tables” on his captor feel more than a little uncomfortable – especially when some details about Clara’s past are revealed during the film’s latter half. That isn’t to say that I think the film was made with bad intentions, but simply that it just doesn’t quite function as well as it could have with a little more development.
There’s definitely some admirable effort put into Blood Shine, not least being the solid performances delivered by all involved.
There’s definitely some admirable effort put into Blood Shine, not least being the solid performances delivered by all involved, but as a follow-up to Alone With You it doesn’t feel quite as captivating or inspired. Parts of Blood Shine leave it feeling a bit like a “greatest hits” of the past ten years of horror, with plenty of moments reminiscent of everything from Saint Maud (2019), and Barbarian (2022), to Midsommar (2019), and the film sadly loses a lot of its own identity and potential as it goes on. It’s a technically sound picture, but I confess that the majority of Blood Shine felt like the kind of single-location kidnapping/torture flick that we’ve seen hundreds of times – albeit with a little taste of religious fanaticism.
Things do pick up a towards the end of the story with some gruesomely perverse imagery and one rather effective jump-scare, but it’s also at this point that the film tries to become a “folk horror” without really understanding what makes that subgenre effective. It’s also disappointing that Manichean cosmology, which is referenced in a lot of Blood Shine’s marketing material, is never properly explored in the film, nor is it even invoked beyond the idea of “light” and “dark”.
Blood Shine starts with bright potential that gradually dims and flickers over the course of its runtime, in spite of the occasional interesting spark. Tortured analogy aside, this is one of those films that I wish I enjoyed more because of the incredible amount of talent involved, but sadly, it didn’t stick with me as much as I had hoped.
