Bloodbath in the House of Knives Clearly Comes From a Love of and Respect for Classic Italian Thrillers
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Bloodbath in the House of Knives Writer/Director Ted Moehring clearly has an abiding love for and knowledge of the giallo. But is that enough to make the final product a good film?
Written by James “Crypticpsych” Lasome
November 14, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: 2010 (US DVD)
Written and Directed by: Ted Moehring
Starring:
Anne Reiss as Ivy
Joseph Michael as Detective Bliss
Monica Moehring as Violet
Lloyd Kaufman as Lawyer
We begin on a woman (Nicola Fiore), home alone, being stalked, slaughtered, and violated by a black-gloved killer. This same psycho is also calling and leaving threatening voicemails for Ivy (Anne Reiss). While she tries to get to the bottom of the killer’s intentions and identity, the assailant slowly closes in, brutally murdering those around her in cold blood. With the help of intrepid Detective Bliss (Joseph Michael), will they uncover the murderer’s secrets before they become victims themselves?
If there’s one thing that can absolutely be said about the indie giallo homage Bloodbath in the House of Knives, it’s that Ted Moehring seems to know the key archetypes of a giallo and tries to incorporate every one of them into this standard giallo storyline. He’s got the bizarre, wordy title seen elsewhere in the subgenre with such films as Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key and The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion. He also manages to get a few moments of great tension, particularly a torture scene involving a topless woman being menaced with skewers and needles. He uses some strange camera angles and odd colored lighting and filters on certain shots. There are also some passably decent low-budget practical effects. The story even creates the usual obvious red herrings regarding the killer. Whatever else can be said about the film, his heart was in the right place.
But heart alone cannot overcome basic filmmaking flaws of the magnitude that exist in Bloodbath in the House of Knives. To put it bluntly, watching this movie is kind of like watching someone’s workprint that got released to a legitimate DVD. The few things mentioned above that go right are utterly dwarfed by a series of flaws that cripple the film beyond repair. The actors are universally amateur and pretty terrible. The only exception to that rule is Lloyd Kaufman’s cameo as a lawyer, which is played just as hammy as is expected from a Kaufman appearance. Beyond him, almost every single actor in the film has next to no ability to emote or react appropriately at all. In fact, this film has the “dishonor” of featuring one of the worst line readings I’ve ever heard when Ivy is told that one of the killer’s threats has come true and a friend of hers has died… leading to a three-person discussion of this in the most inappropriately apathetic monotones possible.
Then there’s the editing that features mistakes and miscues of so
many different varieties, it’s staggering. On one hand we have
shots that
are held too long on the front or
back end leading to a few
seconds of padding screentime on far more shots than necessary. Then,
really adding to that “workprint” feel of Bloodbath in the House of Knives,
we have a few glimpses of cuts
that look like entire scenes were once there but were then removed,
leaving behind a quick, very noticeable split second of a missing shot.
Most glaring of all, though, is the movie’s nasty habit of cutting to
characters who say nothing. Characters will be having conversations
only for the movie to cut to an alternate angle of them or an otherwise
silent character and back again for absolutely no reason!
The overall storyline doesn’t fare much better. Giallos are stereotypically famous for being somewhat nonsensical and very style over substance, but they’re usually still interesting and exciting. Here, though, the story drags and drags. It’s a massively padded, overlong movie that features multiple clumsily-handled, pointless subplots. The main plot here is supposed to be Ivy and her friends and acquaintances dealing with the impending threat of the killer. When that part’s only being handled marginally well, adding in unnecessary side stories about Ivy’s dark past with a drug-dealing, bar-owning ex-boyfriend or an ill-fated hypnotist’s act doesn’t help!
Basically, Ted Moehring has proven with Bloodbath in the House of Knives that he knows and loves giallos. He just couldn’t translate that into an enjoyable example of one. There are a few good moments of tension in it, but mostly it’s a film throttled by an almost complete inability to satisfactorily accomplish even the most basic elements of filmmaking. Maybe with more practice, he’ll fix his issues and clean up his work. Here, though, it’s just too deeply flawed to recommend on almost any level.
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