Bleeding review
One of the best dramas about addiction in recent memory…wrapped in a unique vampire tale.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Streaming exclusively on SCREAMBOX June 10, 2025
Bleeding
Directed by Andrew Bell
Written by Andrew Bell
Starring Jay Dunn, John R. Howley, Jasper Jones, Josh Krol, Chloe Sirene and Tori Wong
Bleeding Review
I’m never quite sure where to start with a film like Bleeding. The truth is I’m not much of a drama movie fan. Sure…there’s drama in everything…horror is built on it as much as any other genre. But stories designed to provide realistic and relevant drama have never been my go to. I assume that my love of horror comes from a certain amount of escapism from the dark and dour dramas the real world presents every time you turn on the news. There’s an interesting conversation to be had about the horror genre as escapism given its own dark nature…but that’s best left for another time. Bleeding is a thoroughly dramatic picture about a true horror relevant to our times. Its clever use of horror concepts to tell that story is a more interesting topic for today. Especially for those, like me, who don’t rush to watch dramas.
Teen cousins Eric (John R. Howley) and Sean (Jasper Jones) find themselves in big trouble when Sean ends up indebted to a local drug dealer. Sean is addicted to a drug called Dust…a by-product of vampire blood. When the cousins try to hide out in an abandoned house…they discover Sara (Tori Wong) locked inside. She’s addicted too…and incredibly dangerous when she gets hungry. Sara needs help getting across the border…and Eric wants to help. Sean’s debt may prevent anyone from finding a happy ending, however.
Bleeding, despite its vampire influences, is far more grounded than supernatural. In fact, it’s as starkly realistic about the opiate addiction plaguing modern times than most stories that set out to be so without the accentuation of horror concepts. While there may be vampires here (brilliantly, people turn when they overdose on Dust) …Bleeding is a darkly rich tale about rough home lives, addiction and being deemed expendable by society.
Sara’s goal of crossing the border is an important piece of Bleeding’s world building. She needs to escape this country because other places are treating the addiction as a disease that can be helped. Here, addicts are seen as less than. Officers take pride (and joy) in eliminating those that “turn”. The war on vampires doubling for the war on drugs in a metaphor as obvious as it is effective in Bleeding.
The centerpiece of this gritty drama is the relationship between Eric and Sean. Bleeding takes its time to establish the hardships each has faced at home. Eric has lost a brother to addiction…and Sean, the closest thing he has to another one, is heading down the same path. They’re trapped in a world without many options. Sara represents both the hope of helping an addict…and the danger of being hurt by one.
There are some pure vampire moments to be had here as well. Bleeding doesn’t forget that it’s a vampire story…it just makes those vampires less gothic and, frankly, more interesting. The romanticizing of vampires is completely out the window…which makes Bleeding instantly more exciting to watch. It isn’t telling the same story we’ve seen a hundred times. And, even as it is telling a story we have seen before…it does so in a way that feels far more urgent and relevant than we usually see.
The performances in Bleeding are universally strong. We connect with who we are supposed to connect with. We fear who we are supposed to fear. And we have difficulty trusting the people we should have difficulty trusting. The cast plays their parts with full understanding that this isn’t an “elevated horror movie”. It’s a stark, hopeless drama elevated by its horror elements.
It’s an important distinction. Especially for people, like me, who wouldn’t have found the time for a movie like Bleeding had it not contained those vampire story aspects. That’s a metaphor working as intended. Drawing a different audience to a story that they would normally avoid. It helps, of course, when that story is as well told as it is in Bleeding.
Scare Value
Vampirism as an addiction metaphor isn’t a new concept but Bleeding finds unique ways to make it feel fresh and, more importantly, timely. This is a deeply committed drama about drug addiction. It uses horror elements to accentuate the real-world darkness of its addiction story. Grounded with the potential to explode into the supernatural. Metaphor is king in Bleeding…and it’s deployed to a perfectly dramatic effect.
4/5
Bleeding Link
Streaming on SCREAMBOX
