US | 2019 | Directed by Joe Begos
Logline: A talented painter in the midst of a debilitating creative block finds inspiration through a potent drug, but in turn is exposed to something far more insidious and destructive.
It’s the age old dilemma, the artist in search of their muse. Usually it’s a trip through darkness to find the light, and in this case, that is most definitely what happens, figuratively and literally. This is a journey through hell, where joy and ecstasy are the most elusive of altered states. This is the plight of young Dezzy (Dora Madison), a free spirit in the City of Angels, who flies too close to the sun, and whose admirers are burned along the way.
Dezzy is an artist struggling with her latest piece (de resistence), waiting desperately for that surge of creative energy that will enable her to complete the large abstract painting in her Los Angeles studio. Her agent is no longer prepared to tow the line, the gallery owner is tired of waiting, her close friends only facilitate her frustration, while her landlord demands the overdue rent. Something’s got to give.
Dez resorts to familial recklessness and hits up her dealer for something strong. She’s offered a black devil’s powder known as “Bliss” and immediately finds hallucinogenic exhilaration and astral abandon. Cutting loose at a party with hedonistic girlfriend Courtney (Tru Collins) and lover Ronnie (Rhys Wakefield) she ends up in a torrid threesome with the pair, then blacks out. But this is only the tip of the tenebrous iceberg, and the collateral damage will be extensive.
This is writer/director Begos’ third feature (he also released an action horror called VFW this year). He co-produced, with his production company, Channel 83 Films, a direct nod to Videodrome, and camera operated - the film was shot on Super-16mm and blown up to 2.39:1, and it’s a fabulous looking movie, rich in blacks and saturated primary colours, stunning work from cinematographer Mike Testin.
This is easily the best movie Begos has made, as his first two features Almost Human and The Mind’s Eye suffered from overwritten scripts, poor acting, and lacked any real style, apart from wearing their Cronenberg influences like flair. Bliss is one of the most fierce horror movies dealing with bloodlust I’ve seen in many moons.
It’s a study of desperation and addiction, of the inexorable bind of emotional fragility and creative genius, and is channeled as a phantasmagorical descent into madness, gritty and filthy, drenched and sodden with sweat and blood. It is sexy and uninhibited, yet shackled and depraved. It is a perfect little nightmare for those that seek pure horror cinema of an unbridled, transgressive nature.
A blistering performance from Dora Madison who utterly owns her character, foul-mouthed and sassy, vulnerable and alone, itching, scratching, tearing, gouging, gulping blood, screaming for life. Indie darling Jeremy Gardner plays her hapless fuck buddy Clive, and watch for George Wendt as Pops, one of the grumpy old men in Dezzy’s social circle. All the support cast are solid, but, apart from Madison, the other real star of the film is the special effects makeup design courtesy of Josh and Sierra Russell, truly outstanding work.
Bliss is an urban vampire flick reminiscent of the nihilism present in the work of Abel Ferrara and the vivid unfettered expressionism that characterises the look of Gaspar Noe’s movies. The score by Steve Moore is terrific, and the use of sourced metal music adds a thunderous punctuation to certain scenes. What it might lack in plotting, it more than makes up for in an all-embracing, urgent atmosphere, a pulsating, visceral intensity, a brilliantly sustained singular point of view, and a consummate ending.
I am more than happy, I am in a state of fucking bliss.