The dialogue is unintentionally funny in so many places that this dog of a horror flick is worth watching. Add to that Patrick Breen's cartoonishly rotten performance, the preposterous dialogue and the dozens of "I'm-going-to-make a-dumb-horror-decision" moments and you've got one for the "so-bad-it's-good" file. Why any of the other viewers on this board think this is a subtle piece of work which needs careful attention, or why other reviewers here think anyone has missed the point, is beyond me. The details and "secrets" of this film are so glaringly obvious from the first moment that it's as if the film-maker is bludgeoning you with a sledgehammer. This movie is not subtle - it's just obvious. So, NO SPOILERS - just the facts: A family with a secret, a mysterious stranger who looks and sounds like a Tennessee Williams reject, wearing a white linen suit and carrying a dirty black medical bag (no seriously), a daughter who keeps dead bugs pinned to her wall... You can guess the family secret as soon as a few, circumspect lines of dialogue are spoken about it (within the first 10 minutes, frankly, even though the filmmaker thinks he's saving this for a big reveal at the end.) The first 10 minutes also emphasizes the family's need for isolation but when the mysterious stranger whose "car has broken down" (no seriously) asks to stay the night, they let him. No seriously. This is one of those movies where everyone does dumb horror movie things, where no one behaves or speaks like a real person, and the whole thing feels like a mid-level film-student project. Well shot, but ponderous and with decent enough performances by actors trying to make the best of an unrealistic script. If you've seen THEM, THE STRANGERS or FUNNY GAMES, I just wouldn't bother with this one. My favorite piece of rotten dialogue happens when one of the movie's victims is being slowly, slowly murdered he says, "You can't just come in here and..." Really??? Another character in the same situation says, "How dare you!" And finally there's the moment when one of our principals smashes another person's head with a rock and the observer's reaction is, "What is wrong with you?"
Review of The Bleeding House
