Bleeders (1997)

A man travels to an island with his girlfriend in search of his relatives but he finds maybe more than what he wanted to know.

Director:

Peter Svatek

Writers:

Charles Adair, Dan O'Bannon

Stars:

Gillian Ferrabee, Pascal Gruselle, Roy Dupuis

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gillian Ferrabee	...	Eva Van Daam / Her Twin Brother / John's Twin Sister
Pascal Gruselle	...	Vermeer
Roy Dupuis	...	John Strauss
Kristin Lehman	...	Kathleen Strauss
John Harold Cail	...	Ferryman
Joanna Noyes	...	Byrde Gordon
Felicia Shulman	...	Yolanda
Janine Theriault	...	Alice Gordon
Michelle Brunet	...	Ramona
David Deveau	...	Ben
Spencer Evans	...	Squeakie
Rutger Hauer	...	Dr. Marlowe
Carmen Ferland	...	Mrs. Shea (as Carmen Ferlan)
Leni Parker	...	Baby Laura
Lisa Bronwyn Moore	...	Toot (as Lisa Bronwyn-Moore)

Storyline

A man with an unknown disease travels to an island with his girlfriend where his relatives once lived, hoping to find a cure to his illness. While it was thought that his relatives were all dead he actually finds them to be living underground. However because they have been inbreeding for all these years they don't look right, plus they have developed a pretty bad eating habit. Will he chose his girlfriend or his people?

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Plot Keywords:

island | underground | inbreeding | creature feature | h.p. lovecraft | 

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Taglines:

It's in the blood

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Genres:

Horror

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong sexuality and violence

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

31 July 1997 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Descendant

Filming Locations:

Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 8,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Fries/Schultz Film Group,Kingsborough Greenlight Pictures

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

In the prologue, the "King of Holland" is mentioned in relation to the year 1652. Holland was part of the Dutch Republic from 1581 through 1795, and had no king.

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Quotes

Hank Gordon: What is it, Doc?
Dr. Marlowe: It's a red blood cell from the autopsy specimen. It's identical to the blood sample I drew from John Strauss and the embryo.
Hank Gordon: What it means?
Dr. Marlowe: Trouble.

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Connections

Version of Lurking Fear (1994)

User Reviews

A pretty decent film

An uncredited adaptation of the Lurking Fear, Hemoglobin (as it is titled in the current US DVD release) stars Rutger Hauer as a drunken doctor recently moved to a small New England fishing community. The arrival of John Strauss (played in near-albino fashion by Roy Dupuis) raises some interesting questions.

The basic theme of Lovecraft's story remains unchanged. A family of incest-deformed monsters live beneath the town, feeding on the dead. Of course, Lovecraft provided a description of the horror in the Lurking Fear and yet, to my knowledge, there is no adaptation that has bothered to be true to this fairly simple detail.

The movie is fairly fast paced, though the insertion of a sex scene comes off as forced and staged, interrupting the film's progression for the purpose of a few quick breast shots. The creature effects aren't that great, indeed, they are probably one of the poorer portions of the film. The footage of the underground catacombs though? That is just wonderful.

The film tries to play with atmosphere, and does us the courtesy of not waving badly made up monsters in our face. Indeed, one of the more tense scenes plays out mostly in shadow as the creatures storm the local lighthouse.