Fresh from a rough break-up with her abusive ex-boyfriend Alex (Nicholas Vitulli), Ebony (Sakeenah Nicole) is glad when she runs into Cedric (Archie Ekong), an old friend. Cedric and his best friend Kyle (Duane Littles) are in the process of producing a CD and are in need of a singer of Ebony’s talents. She is happy to help them and is at first relieved to have the assistance of friends in leaving her past behind her. And while she continues to have disturbing nightmares about Alex, she doesn’t think much about it…until, that is, the people she loves start dying.
Content
At first glance, this story seems to be along the lines of a normal thriller/murder mystery. It starts out with some sinister music and noises, and then continues to slowly build up the tension throughout the film. It also does a very good job of keeping the audience guessing until the very end as to who the killer really is. And in a film with such a small cast, this is quite an accomplishment. I even found myself suspecting a secondary character of being the culprit – only a few minutes before she herself was murdered.
My one complaint was with a few small logic gaps in the story itself. For example, when Candice sees the dark figure standing outside her apartment, she immediately seems to know that he means to do her harm, although the audience feels at a loss as to how she knows this. Also, when Candice tries to use her phone – presumably to call the police – she soon throws it on the ground without having completed her call. Once again, the viewer assumes that her phone isn’t working, but this isn’t quite clear. It might be a good idea to show the phone lying on the ground with its LCD display saying something like, “No Signal,” just so that audience is aware. However, the scene that follows is so intense that one almost forgets these two confusing moments.
There were a couple other moments that confused me as well, such as the scene in which Kyle breaks out of jail. It’s a very brief moment – and visually it looks amazing – but it never really seems clear that Kyle does in fact break out, because the image of him sitting in jail looks almost like a dream sequence. It might be a good idea to shoot a brief couple of scenes of him sneaking out an open window and running away from the police station. The fact that he has escaped isn’t made clear until several minutes later once two police detectives show up at Ebony’s house looking for him. Additionally, when the detectives realize that Kyle may be there, one of them runs to the car to call for backup. Though this fits with the action that occurs later, it still seems counter-intuitive that these detectives would not already have some backup with them, let alone be carrying radios on them in order to call for help. But once again, the scene that follows is intense enough to almost make the audience forget about the slight hiccup in the logic.
Visual Look
There were several impressive visual elements to this film. Most obvious of all are the many moving camera shots. Though sometimes a moving camera can make a film look cheap or unprofessional, the filmmakers of Bleeding Rose did a good job at not overdoing the effect. The moving shots were all very smooth – almost as if they had been done by a Steadicam – and the camera wasn’t constantly moving so those with weaker stomachs could probably avoid getting seasick. Plus the movement actually helped the story itself, as it added to the whole “stalker” theme; a constantly still camera would not have been near as effective.
