BLISS (2019)
Label: Umbrella Entertainment
Region Code: ALL (NTSC)
Rating: R
Duration: 80 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Joe Begos
Cast: Dora Madison, Jeremy Gardner, Rhys Wakefield, Tru Collins
From director Joe Begos (Almost Human) comes Bliss (2019), a kinetic and hallucinatory nightmare-tale of an L.A.-based underground visual artists named Dezzy (Dora Madison, Dexter) who is struggling with a creative block while trying to finish up the final painting for a planned art exhibit. Dezzy tries to get the creative juices flowing in self-destructive sort of ways, endlessly indulging in mind-altering drugs, alcohol and sex, struggling to pay her rent, and seemingly incapable of reigning in her destructive behaviors or focusing her creative impulses.
Dezzy's is an attractive free-spirit, but she has some unattractive qualities, like she's unnecessarily vulgar and rude without reason, plus she's a chain-smoker who seems as if she would smell like over-flowing ashtray, she's just not exactly the most likable person you would ever meet and a hard character to root for in any way, that's probably the only fault I have with it. She cheats on her boyfriend Clive (Jeremy Gardner, The Battery) by having a wild threesome with her debaucherous gal pal Courtney (Tru Collins, MTV's Awkward) and her kinky boyfriend Ronnie (Rhys Wakefield, True Detective), in a steamy scene that really pushes the sexual boundaries you see in most horror films of this sort.
Later, after a drug-fueled night at a metal club turns deadly Dezzy begins having a strange craving, thirsting for blood, and increasingly she gives into her darker impulses. She suffers a series of drug-fueled black outs, waking up with no memory of what happened but covered in someone else's blood and having done some fantastic work the final art piece she's been struggling with, with not only her creative juices flowing but also unleashing a torrent of blood in the process.
The film is a wild and surreal ride, a strobing neon-lit nightmare that flies by at just eighty-minutes, anchored by a solid and pleasingly flesh-baring performance from star Dora Madison, who despite being rather unlikable as the self-destructive artist is still a compelling character. The film has some excellent gore throughout, including a gruesome scene of her turning someone into a human Pezz-dispenser, there's plenty of blood here for the gorehounds to enjoy.
Audio/Video: Bliss (2019) arrives on region-free DVD from Umbrella Entertainment in 2.35:1 widescreen, with an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio mix with no subtitles. The standard-definition struggles a bit with the acid-tinged hallucinatory visual style of the film, with lots of problematic crush and artifacting throughout. The 5.1 audio sounds good, the score from Steve Moore (Zombi) sounds terrific, as do the heavy songs from The Nymphs, Electric Wizard, Doomriders and others.
This is a bare bones release without even a start-up menu to accompany it. Thankfully there are other HD options for this film in both the U.S. (Dark Sky Films) and U.K. (Second Sight Films) for fans looks for a higher-grade image and extras, I've already upgraded it to Blu-ray myself. .
Bliss (2019) is an electrifying and visceral watch with a strong element of Abel Ferrara's cult-classic Driller Killer sewn into that I enjoyed. A bit of warning though, the film opens with a photo-sensitivity warning, and that's not to be taken lightly, this thing is on fire with neon-lit strobing effects that feed into the hallucinatory atmosphere of it all. If I had seen this in 2019 I would have put this in my top 10 of the year for sure, highly recommended.
