American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock Review – Yeti
Bloodshock tells the story of an unnamed asylum patient who undergoes a series of increasingly brutal medical torture sessions while they drain him of his blood. The patient is an unwilling participant in an experiment that is trying to find the answer to that age old question: how high can you get from the blood of torture victims. Surprisingly enough, the answer to that question is apparently, “pretty fucking high”. It doesn’t take long for our protagonist to find that he is not alone in the experiment and he forms a silent but important bond with his neighbor.
Each of these movies is rally different and therefore leaving me feeling a little bit different after watching them. After Bloodshockit’s “So… That was fucking weird”. Out of the four films, I feel like this one fucked with my head the most. They really got in there and fucked with my emotions a little bit. There’s not so much a twist at the end as there is an, “oh, by the way,” that made me seriously reconsider some things.
About 90% of this film is shot in really crisp black and white. Usually, that’s something I could get behind but it definitely struck me as an odd choice for this film. With so much of the movie centered on the torture and the blood itself being part of the plot you’d think that black and white wouldn’t even come up but honestly, it works. There’s something about the way black and white conveys the emotion on screen that I just can’t get enough of and while it seems like a really strange choice, I think it was a pretty good one. Sure, it blunts the edge of the effects a little bit. Scenes that could have been downright hard to watch in color take on a more clinical nature. You are really able to process what is going on and just how fucking horrible it is. I think that the slightly blunted effect of the gore really helped make the gut punch of a reveal that you’re left with at the end hit even harder because you’re able to really let that shit sink in. I think taking the focus off of the amount of bloodshed and putting is on the action and emotion of the film really gives it some weight.
I can’t say I wouldn’t like to see it in color, though because when the color does come in It is absolute blood soaked primal badassery of the highest caliber. I would not be surprised to find out that they used more blood in the one color sequence than the whole rest of the movie. The payoff comes with the color and makes it that much more satisfying. The tension that had been building for about an hour finally breaks and it’s fucking awesome, then the movie kicks you in the gut, drops a Stone Cold Stunner on you, and walks off.
I have no complaints here. Bloodshock has solid performances, great cinematography, and a score good enough to make me mention the score in a review. The practical effects, even in black and white, were just as good as I expected them to be. It definitely wasn’t what I expected going in but I damn sure wasn’t disappointed.
All in all, would I recommend this movie? Sure. If you’re into super weird movies, or if you want to ease into the series, I would start here. It’s definitely worth checking out. Luckily for you, you can buy it on the Unearthed Films website or buy it digitally on Vimeo. You know you want to.
