The Bloodletting backdrop
The Bloodletting poster

THE BLOODLETTING

2004 • US HMDB
October 6, 2004

For Amanda Deter and her friends, life seems to be going great. Until one night when they cross paths with a mysterious vagrant, who warns them, a terrible evil is coming. The group disregards his warnings as nothing but drunken nonsense. But the next day when they find the vagrant dead, it is already to late to heed his warnings... Now Amanda and Derek must try and save their friends from the brutal killings of an elusive vampire. With several friends already dead or missing and Amanda's boyfriend Jonathan no where to be found, they are running out of options... and time! - Written by Shaun Paul Piccinino

Cast

Molly Fix, Jeremy Dunn, Shaun Paul Piccinino, Orlando McGuire, Amanda Lea, Jody Marie, Caroline Blackwell, Mark Westerdale, Henry Iglesias, Ferly Prado
Horror Azione

REVIEWS (1)

RG

Roberto Giacomelli

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Four boys and four girls returning from a nightclub encounter a vagabond who announces a terrible death to them. After mocking the man, the eight friends go home, but that same night the vagabond is killed and thrown into a trash bin next to the young people's house. The next morning, Rachel finds the homeless man dead and locks herself in her room in a state of shock; but soon the girl disappears, leaving only a bloodstain on the bed. At this point, Rachel's friends set out to search for her, soon discovering they are dealing with a vampire. There are several high-quality films that, despite being produced several years ago, have not yet been distributed in our country and perhaps never will be. This is the case with precious oriental films of worldwide fame, such as "Ichi the Killer" or "Battle Royale", or small American films now cult classics like "Bubba Ho-Tep" or "May". On the other hand, there are those films that, as soon as they are made, are immediately and inexplicably distributed everywhere. The case of "Sete di sangue" ("The Bloodletting" in the original) is somewhat anomalous: being a practically unwatchable film, it has not had much distributive luck (and watching it you could understand why), finding shelter only in the Italian distribution market thanks to Gargoyle video. This 2004 American independent film is a vile film that competes with "The Brotherhood - Stirpe di sangue" for the title of worst vampire film in cinema history. Since horror has come back into fashion and is invading the home video market, we are used to witnessing massacring visions of useless products, but with "Sete di sangue" we are surprised that the culprit of the early distribution is our own, often reliable, Gargoyle video, a distribution house particularly dedicated to our favorite genre and usually attentive to discovering valid films (remember "Halloween Killer", "The Curse of El Carro", "Calvaire"), and yet with "Sete di sangue" we really fall low, into a bottomless abyss, since we are dealing with a semi-amateur product that pretends to appear as a richer film, using ridiculous digital effects and embarrassing choreographies filled with martial arts. "Sete di sangue" revolves around nothing: there is practically no story and for an hour and twenty minutes the characters do nothing but hold stupid dialogues and clash with the invincible vampire. Better to draw a pitying veil over the interpretation of the "actors" and the non-existent direction of Shaun Paul Piccinino (who also plays one of the main characters); and what about the Croatian sitcom photography and the sets probably improvised in the same Piccinino's vacation home? One would expect at least from these ultra-low-budget productions a particular creative flair, a desire to experiment, or a particular propensity for excess, but in "Sete di sangue" there is none of that; not even the easy trick of entertainment is attempted by resorting to rough splatter. Can cause loss of patience and desire to throw away the DVD. Very bad only because there is no lower rating!