‘BLISS’ Review

It’s been a long time since a vampire film has really gotten me excited and thrilled to be watching a vampire film. Yes, What We Do In the Shadows is a charming, wonderful piece of work, but it does a better job of poking the bear than showcasing it. Joe Begos’ film Bliss treats vampirism as a drug addiction, something that’s been dabbled with in the past but NEVER quite as electrically charged and manic as this effort.

A respected artist at the top of her career, Dezzy (Dora Madison) has found herself with something of a “painter’s block.” Getting nothing from her boyfriend Clive (Jeremy Gardner), and seeking anything to fuel her passion, Dezzy decides to contact an old dealer named Hadrian (Graham Skipper) to score something after three months of sobriety. Surely this insane mix he’s selling can stir up some passion and creativity! She passes out after a sample bump at Hadrian’s place, and awakens in the middle of a giant party in the apartment. She runs into a friend Nikki (Rachel Avery) and her boyfriend Ronnie (Rhys Wakefield), and the three end up having a drug-fueled sexual escapade. But part of that threesome involved a bite, and now Dezzy is officially under the influence of a different kind of hunger. It turns out that blood to a vampire is a better rush than imagined, and the black out results of feeding is turning her artwork into something special.

This is a curse transmitted to an unwitting party, simply because the vampires get a kick out of it. The withdrawal and effective chaos of holding back from feeding is as wrenching as any drug film I’ve seen. Begos uses a lot of camera tricks and lighting prowess to express both the high and the low of addiction, matched with a great soundtrack mix of atmospherics with stoner rock and doom metal, in a way that is very fully developed into an audio and video language. This from a director I had written off as a gorehound. I’m not going to take that back, as the gore is plentiful and the effects are excellent. The true highlight that anchors the whole thing, grounds it with a level of realism and depth, is Dora Madison. She’s an actress I knew 10 years ago from NBC’s Friday Night Lights, and is now an adult playing something entirely different and fucking owning it. This performance is amazing, and it absolutely brings the character to life.

I’ve liked Begos’ past two films to some degree, but more respected his obvious passion and influenced aesthetics. Bliss is a major step forward for him in terms of control, narrative, dialogue, direction, and visual dynamics. It appears the few years between The Mind’s Eye and Bliss managed to be very beneficial to Joe, as he’s now gone from a film maker that I had respect for to one that I would now refer to myself as a fan of. His next film VFW (also starring Madison) premiered at Fantastic Fest 2019 last week, and I’m officially excited for that now. Bolstered with a really strong lead performance and a flat out banger of a movie around her, Bliss is one of my favorites this year.

Bliss is in limited theaters and available on VOD today, and on Blu-Ray/DVD on November 12th courtesy of Dark Sky Films! Don’t sleep!!