merklekranz
Pretty middle of the road "Lovecraftian" adaptation that continuously bogs down. Incest and evil deformed creatures that live in tunnels beneath an isolated island, should have worked better. The main problem is the characters are either hardly developed, or terminally boring. The movie almost seems like a series of random events, including a pretty intense, and totally gratuitous sex scene. Rutger Hauer delivers the only acceptable performance as he gradually pieces things together. The film has good atmosphere, nice locations, and grotesque creatures, but fails to impress, because it is so slow building toward the rather disappointing conclusion. - MERK
Vomitron_G
Now I won't say this is an excellent Lovecraft adaptation, but I will say this is a decent horror-drama based on a Lovecraft story (called "The Lurking Fear"). The acting was okay, with Rutger Hauer and leading lady Kristin Lehman being among the best of the cast. The story developed at a slow but satisfying pace. There was one jump-scene that actually worked (the arm bursting through the widow's coffin). The mutant inbred-crawlers were creepy (some of them were real amputated people as actors with monstrous make-up). And there's a pretty redundant, but nonetheless steamy and mildly exciting sex-scene near the end. Some children were even killed in this movie! And the ending is slightly sad or tragic or whatever... This film is known in Europe under the title "Hemoblobin", and I honestly don't understand that very low rating it has on here. You guys should try watching some of the real crap out there.
slayrrr666
"Bleeders" is a dull, disappointing creature feature with little to like about it.**SPOILERS**Stranded on a small island, Kathleen Strauss, (Kristin Lehman) and her husband John, (Roy Dupuis) decide to stay there following an outburst of a physical condition he suffers from. Unable to find help from Dr. Marlowe, (Rutger Hauer) he advises them to stay there anyway to rest up from his condition. Realizing that the island's cemetery is being overhauled, a series of strange disappearances of the locals manages to get wind back to them about a deadly curse plaguing the island. When it's claimed that he is the descendant of a long-cursed bloodline of European royals that were doomed due to their incessant inbreeding and forced to come there, he initially disbelieves the stories until an encounter with a race of devilish creatures, hungry after the removal of their food-supply, are terrorizing the island and must team with the locals to keep the ravenous creatures at bay.The Good News: This here is a disappointing, but potentially worthwhile entry. One of it's best features is the absolutely creepy, and potentially great story for this one. This one had the perfect potential to be incredibly creepy with the way it went about building up it's story, with the rare blood disease and the deranged ancestors meshing well with the suspense of the subterranean menaces plaguing the town through the cemetery was ripe for a series of incredibly atmospheric scenes, and while the occasional shot of something scurrying around breaking open the coffins or dragging someone away underneath the series of tunnels do get pretty creepy, they pale to how great it could've been. The other really big plus is the look of the creatures, which are appropriately grotesque. Despite only being glimpsed clearly rather briefly, they're pink lumpy, hermaphroditic blobs with multiple stomachs, numerous nostrils and eyes. They also act quite viciously, only attacking when they themselves appear to be in danger but causing a lot of damage when it happens, a really nice touch that adds to their credibility. The only other part to work nicely is how well-done the finale is, which is great. With the suspense of the huddled masses inside the darkened lighthouse with the snarling creatures right on their heels to the enormously satisfying confrontations within the tunnels below and all the more, this is a great conclusion and works nicely. These here are the best features of the film.The Bad News: There was a couple of rather big flaws in this one. The biggest out of all of them is the film's incredibly languid and utterly boring pace. It's really hard to stay interested in this one because it really doesn't have all that much going on for it during the beginning half. Rather than build off the incredible potential it had with it's fantastic story, it concerns itself with useless scenes of the family's wandering around the village trying to find something to help them or just taking too long to explain anything. There's no reason why the meeting at the house where his past is spelled out for him should take over ten minutes to get through, especially since the thing is given in two lengthy discussions that really only needed one, since one ends with the revelation of a flaw in the argument and the second go-round gives it completely, wasting tons of time in the process. Even going deeper in the histories of the other townspeople is a lot of time taken up there that could've been better served in getting the creatures some time, since they have so little time anyway and given or even removed them from the film somewhat lets them shine a little more. That also brings up another rather big flaw to this one, the incredibly limited time the creatures themselves are involved. As mentioned, it's only around the last twenty minutes that they are shown with any kind of frequency, and that's due to the amount of time that's spent with the other story lines here. This is especially troubling considering how potentially promising the story could've been with so many great things in it. Another rather big flaw is the film's really hard-to-see gore scenes, as nearly everything takes place under the cover of night and rendering them practically impossible to see. The fact that it's body count is so small it's hard to generate much of any under that condition is the film's last big flaw, since, even though it's impossible to see them, when it doesn't have a lot to offer it stands out even more. That really could've been fixed during the assault at the end, but overall, the biggest flaw is the boredom.The Final Verdict: An incredibly dull and boring creature feature that's all the more maddening knowing what could've been present is wasted. Really only worthwhile for those who enjoy the work of the creative crew or find these slow-burning films interesting, while those who can't stand the flaws should seek caution.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, several Sex Scenes, several attempted Rapes and some Language
sanguinius2004
I had to leave a comment on this one because so many people seem to hate it and its a personal favorite of mine. It's based on the Lurking Fear and personally i thought it was one of the best HP Lovecraft based films that I've seen and stays pretty close to the original story. Of course having said that I'm a big fan of both Unnameable films which seem to have been similarly slaughtered and Reanimator (only the first one!) so perhaps I'm more predisposed to these movies than the average guy. I thought Roy Dupuis and Rutger Hauer did a really good job. Maybe the US release title of 'Bleeders', which is pretty awful gives a negative impression to begin with, in the UK this was released a Hemoglobin, not nearly as painful. If you love Lovecraft then you'll probably enjoy this.
