Blood Shine

“Why are you doing this?” asks the chained man after a beating, and it sounds less like a query into the reason for the torture than like an expression of perplexity at his captor’s role. Why is he the one suffering? Shouldn’t all of this work the other way round?

Modern horror is build atop is own bed of tropes and conventions which, though they may differ from those of mainstream cinema, are just as well equipped to substantiate or to mislead. Screening as part of Frightfest 2025, Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks’ Blood Shine both exploits and subverts these formulae whilst using them to comment on horrors that are very much a part of the real world.

A length prologue situates us firmly in the world of the film. At first it’s easy to recognise. Keith (Brendan Sexton III) inhabits a trailer full of empty bottles and discarded cigarettes, drinks from a mug labelled ‘just another shitty day in paradise’; outside, he trudges through snow. Work involves tending to cows but the calves keep being born dead, a hint at a bigger picture we never get to see in full. His truck breaks down, his phone dies. It’s one of those days alright. And then he sees Clara (Emily Bennett).

Standing in the doorway of the house where he sought help, she looks as if she’s glowing. Milk white skin, long red hair, a slender figure and pale, blindish eyes. Nervously, she invites him in. He learns that she’s alone. She lowers her eyes deferentially when she smiles, pours tea with delicate hands. He’s not the first man to have looked at her this way, weighing up his chances, but he’ll be a very different man by the time they’re done, and she’ll be screaming for a reason he cannot now imagine.

We spend most of the film with Brighton (David Call), a filmmaker who travels to the area to work on his script – or, perhaps, to avoid complications after talking an actress into going the extra mile to get a role. It’s after a fall in the woods, or so he’s told, that he finds himself with Clara, drinking her tea. A series of conversations between the two will follow as a strange relationship develops. She wants him to understand her religious passion. He suggests that filmmaking is the worship of light. She seems, at times, to desire him, but is afraid of losing her way. For each of them, the pursuit of freedom requires surrendering something, and neither can do it easily.

There is visceral violence in Bennett and Brooks’ film, an explicit study of some of the dynamics of self harm, at times eroticised, and a lot of blood. Still, it is essentially a character-driven piece. There are nice supporting turns from the ever-reliable Larry Fessenden and Toby Poser. There’s also some marvellous set design which adds layers to the story, and Brooks cinematography becomes a player itself due to the way he engages with the narrative importance of light.

The story is slight, the focus on psychological journeys past and present rather than on events per se. The directors take their time, An important aspect of Clara’s world is its stillness. The visual details and the luminosity of the images are important to keeping the audience enchanted. Not everyone will fall under its spell, but Blood Shine is singular in the pursuit of its vision and as such is stands out from the crowd. It’s well worth a look.

Reviewed on: 25 Aug 2025