Bad Blood

Reviewed by Joseph Agredano

Watching this new release by Tartan Video, titled “Bad Blood” (or “Coisa Ruim”), I really didn’t know what to think. A Portuguese film directed by a Tiago Guedes, “Bad Blood” is sold as a horror, but from the beginning terror is the last thing on the viewer’s mind. This picture is more of a commentary on superstition in relation to organized religion, if anything.

The premise is centered around a family moving from the city to a small village, in an old house that has been passed down to the father. The villagers hold various tales of ghosts and witches that surround their otherwise dull lives, and one of these tales is about the house that the family from the city has moved into. The parents soon become friends with a young priest, through moving in, who soon becomes part of everything. But there is little everything beyond that.

The whole film looks into a family with a notion of poltergeists while talking about it, maybe while mentioning the ghost story of their house. Stale at times and vaguely interesting other times, the real appeal of the film is found in the philosophical side of it. The conversations, with platitudes thrown in perhaps at times, hold one’s attention to a point through its candor. (Also, I will say that the music and opening credits are both beautifully done.)

What is unique about “Bad Blood” is that it strays from the easy; that is, the film could have been a barrage of blood and gore at the beginning, but instead it goes in the opposite direction. The ghosts really only exist as a feeling that stresses the tensions already present in the family dynamic. The picture makes an honest attempt at accomplishing something that was more successfully done in films like “The Devils Backbone.”

To take from Kierkegaard: Watch this film, and you will regret it. Do not watch this film, and you will also regret it. Whether you watch this film or do not watch this film, you will regret it either way.