Bad Blood (DVD)

OK, so my comment above is a bit harsh… I can't resist the quick quip. Too bad the same cannot be said of the filmmakers behind Bad Blood (aka Coisa Ruim in its native Portuguese)… they not only have no sense of humor, they have no sense of immediacy. I understand the slow build (Takashi Miike's Audition is an excellent, if extreme, example) but Bad Blood is just slow.

As the atmospheric, dialogue-heavy movie opens, we meet the Monteiro family. Harried dad Xavier (Adriano Luz) wants to move his kids from the temptations of Lisbon — eldest daughter Sofia (Sara Carinhas) is already an unwed mother — and while his wife Helena (Manuela Couto) supports his decision, she's really with her boys Ricardo (João Santos), and Rui (José Afonso Pimentel) in their resistance to the prospect of boring country life. But the secluded estate is free — and inheritance from Xavier's uncle — and what father says, the family does.

The Monteiros soon discover that life in the slow lane is underscored by the locals' rampant superstition and occult practices (obviously, the sudoku craze hasn't hit pastoral Portugal yet). Long-winded campfire tales and tedious, everlasting flashbacks are also apparently very much in vogue. Eventually, there is a séance and some ghosts, and dark family secrets come to light. Ho-hum.

Bad Blood sounds and feels very much like a stage play, but fortunately the cinematography, score, locations, sets and other sundry accoutrements don't follow suit. It's a nicely shot, rich-looking and pretty movie that's well-acted and reasonably thought out. But the direction is far too languid for my taste — perhaps helmers Tiago Guedes and Frederico Serra were aspiring to a cross between Robert Wise's The Haunting and Victor Erice's Spirit of the Beehive? Whatever, it didn't work — and there is not enough horror in the story to justify the marketing campaign for this DVD.

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson