I'm not sure why movies like this keep popping up---low budget pieces of crap shot with one shaky camera.Independent films are one thing but just because you've got a camcorder doesn't mean you need to make the movie you've always dreamed about.Two backwoods brothers living in a secluded run down old farm house just want to be left alone but some town smart alecks just can't leave well enough alone.After one of the brothers chases the town slut through the woods and she falls and implausibly kills herself on a stick their isolated life quickly spirals out of control.The script is terrible ,the acting is cardboard and the special effects are neither special nor effective.This movie reminds me of looking at someone else's vacation pictures....it may have been fun for those involved but it is sheer torture for anyone else to have to see.There is nothing much else to say about this mess except it is another homemade piece of drivel ,made by people with no talent for movie-making, that today's technology has made all too easy to churn out.Sometimes bringing too much technology to the masses can be a bad thing,as the recent explosion in the ability to produce home made horror films should attest.Get a camera ,some fake blood,a couple of chicks willing to show their milk bags,maybe an axe or two and an old rundown house and you too can make your very own horror movie.Then after you make your movie keep it at home where you can proudly show it to family and friends and any one else who unwittingly wanders by but never, ever,under any circumstance ,put it out on DVD for commercial release.Like scrap booking and knitting,the results of your homemade movie making should be solely for your own personal enjoyment.

I rented this movie at my videostore, because the cover caught my attention, the resume on the back sounded interesting and the average rating at IMDb indicated, that it could be a hidden gem for friends of the horror genre. Well, now I just watched this movie, and it didn't hold anything it promised...the story is weak, the characters stupid, not sympathetic at all and for that reason not to identify with at all. The photography of this flick is really amateur-stylish, but not in an innovative and thus good style, but just looks amateurish cheap. The directing is poor and so are the actors, who act all too wooden by one exception (the sheriff). At all this is a movie to forget about, and I definitely will.

Frank and Donnie Osmond have had a tough life. We know this because the townspeople tell us but we never hear exactly what this tough life entailed except from the drunken rebellious sheriff's son, Rodney Greene, who swears that Frank chopped up his family, except his retarded brother, Donnie. How it is that Frank murdered his family yet gets to sit in the bar and drink beer we never find out.Bad luck visits Frank and Donnie in the form of a girl whose mysterious death leaves Donnie looking guilty. Frank must decide how far he will go to protect his little brother.Overall not a bad film that except for a few slow spots and some random filler kept me interested from beginning to brutal end. The biggest weak spot and a personal peeve of mine, is that the plot relies on the characters being stupid and doing stupid things. You would think a writer could think of ways to get a character into a precarious situation without them being dumb as a rock. The acting and direction are above par for a micro-budget film. The plot and script are otherwise very good up until just past halfway when apparently the makers ran out of ideas. At this point the story begins to stray into gore zone and there is an encounter in the woods between the brothers and some backpackers that is nothing but space filler. The movie would be much stronger without those scenes. The dialog between the backpackers is the worst in the movie. The movie finds it's legs again near the end when Beth is recruited by the brothers to help with the mess.Some reviews have criticized Paul West for his portrayal of Sheriff Greene but I thought his performance among the stronger in the movie. Christopher Childs also stands out for his performance of the mildly retarded Donnie although he strays from character several times during the movie, something I would blame on poor direction before blaming the actor.The ending gets a bit Scooby Doo while the characters chase each other through the house opening and slamming doors behind themselves. The final scene contains something that may have been intended as a twist but comes off feeling like the director couldn't make up his mind how to end the movie so filmed two ideas and put one after the other.

Bloodshed: 8 out of 10: When I discuss no-budget horror films with my friends. (Or the voices in my head) We often sound like those Monty Python coal miners trying to out-do the horrors of each others childhood. "Raptor Island hah I sat through San Franpyscho." "San Franpyscho is an Academy Award picture compared to Dark Harvest 3. Now that's cinematic pain." So I began to question myself on why I would purposely rent such films as Heartstopper or Warriors of Terra when there are plenty of fine Hollywood productions starring Nicholas Cage such as National Treasure or The Wicker Man I could be watching instead.Okay the recent Cage oeuvre may be a very bad example but the question remains why torture myself with what is basically other people's home movies. Bloodshed is the answer to that question.It is one of those rare no-budget films where the acting isn't grating, the script is competent and the direction is actually good. The film even delivers both genuine tension and characters you actually care about.In terms of pacing and characters it handily beats out most Hollywood films let alone most Hollywood horror films. (Before you accuse me of exaggerating please remember that every Adam Sandler comedy is considered a Hollywood film. I'm grading on a curve here people.) Bloodshed is bragging rights, a true gem in a field of….. well incompetent home movies.Is the film perfect? Well no. It is slow to start (this turns into one of it's charms), the sheriff could have been played better and the ending is pretty awful.Overall a good film and considering its genre and budget a very very good film indeed.