Bleeders’ is known as ‘Hemoglobin’ in the UK which I will proceed to refer to this films as.
At the beginning of a film a young couple, Kathleen (played by the gorgeous Kristin Lehmann) and John Strauss (Roy Dupuis) arrive by boat on an island. Shortly after docking John has a kind of seizure and is quickly taken across the island to Dr. Marlowe (the legendary Rutger Hauer). It is here that we learn that John is suffering from some sort of blood disorder and has come to this island in hope of tracing his family and finding a possible cure.
At the same time, while excavating a graveyard to move the bodies due to the highly annoying local business woman using poor quality wood in her coffins it starts to become apparent that there are a number of bodies missing from the coffins.
‘Hemoglobin’ deals with themes rarely tackled by films in any genre. We have genetic mutations caused by incestuous relationships and also hermaphrodites. Despite only having occasional nudity, there is a strong sexual context to the film, though that seems there more to shock than to titillate.
People tend to slate the acting from this film, but I personally see no problem with it. The problem with the film in my opinion is to do with the extreme lack of useful dialogue and the overall execution of the idea. ‘Hemoglobin’ is a slow movie, therefore it’s quite easy to lose interest, but at the same time when an event happens in the film that is of importance it is quick and often dealt with in a short amount of time. So to fully understand some of what is going on in the movie you really need to pay attention.
The ending was also somewhat of a disappointment and also feeled tacked on. There are so many questions left by the ending that one begins to wonder whether it was worth watching to begin with. Unless perhaps a sequel was planned but due to the negative reactions to the film was scrapped I can’t actually see how the ending could have happened the way it did. But despite this there are some rather dramatic parts in the ending, you just need to sift through the rubbish.
The monster costumes are also a bad-point. Some of them look like they were made out of plasticine, and while they are fairly original looking it doesn’t detract from the stupidity of how they look and move. But at least they didn’t go for CGI, and other than the costumes there are some good make-up effects in ‘Hemoglobin’ that are actually quite praise worthy.
It’s a slow moving movie that many people will find too dull to watch. I personally give it 4/10 and I’d say this film is for serious horror fans who are looking for something different.
