CHRIS' QUARANTINE RECOMMENDATION OF THE DAY (4/27/20): BLISS

CHRIS' QUARANTINE RECOMMENDATION OF THE DAY (4/27/20):

BLISS

By Chris La Vigna (@Chris_LaVigna)

Dezzy's melting...

I've been consuming a lot of zombie-related media lately (for reasons that have nothing to do with current events whatsoever, why would you even suggest that, it's so weird), so yesterday I decided to switch it up and check out a new addition to the world of vampire cinema. I loved it so much that I'm telling you to watch it today: Joe Begos' vampiric splatterpunk acid trip, BLISS.

Written and directed by Begos and released in September 2019, BLISS is a film about Dezzy (Dora Madison),  a struggling painter who is overwhelmed by a host of troubles, from her unsupportive agent and a demanding gallery owner who are bugging her about finishing a painting that she's stalled on, to an overbearing landlord and her clingy neighbor/friend/fuck-buddy Clive (Jeremy Gardner). 

Fed up with all of these problems and distractions, she decides to unwind by heading over to her dealer's house and getting some booger sugar. At least, that was her plan before she cops a new drug her connect introduces to her, an incredibly potent mixture of cocaine and DMT he calls "Bliss." As you can imagine, this shit puts her consciousness into a tailspin, and for the rest of the film's eighty minute runtime, we follow Dezzy as she goes on a string of benders in multiple metal clubs, her mind slowly unraveling while she transitions from booze-chugging to blood-chugging.

"Crack pipes, needles, PCP and fast cars/Kind of mix really well in a dead movie star..."

The film does a good job of keeping the exact cause of Dezzy's vampiric turn mysterious until the third act. The sequences of her late-night blackouts are all deliriously depicted,  heavy with mood lighting that drenches every shot in various combinations of green and red, purple and blue, paired perfectly with noisy metal & punk jams drifting in and out of the soundtrack, and plenty of quick, disorienting cuts. 

Dezzy can never remember where she was or what damage she inflicted when she wakes the next day, so she spends large chunks of the film retracing her steps and leaving increasingly panicked voicemails. Her desperation is palpable and as a viewer you'll begin to feel it set in yourself. Is it the drugs causing her to snap, or is some other force at work here? Well, on the bright side, she's painting again...y'know, when she's lucid...

Bob Ross' work has really taken a dark turn lately...

Like all good vampire films, this story isn't just about the terrors of blood-sucking creatures that roam about in the night; it's a meditation on addiction, the unhealthy habits of tortured artists, and the existential burnout that happens to people living in a world that constantly expects them to produce, produce, produce! Produce your art! Produce the rent! Produce reciprocated feelings! In a way, you could paint this (heh heh) as a monkey's paw-styled wish fulfillment, a distorted portrait (I'm not even trying here they're just coming out of me) of a woman who liberates herself from a world that wants her to give everything away by instead turning around taking as much as she wants.

And as much as her rampage might frighten or disgust you, at times, you might find yourself reveling in it with her. When you're in free fall, there's always a moment or so where you think that you just might be flying.

BLISS is currently streaming on SHUDDER. You can probably rent it on Amazon Prime too. I don't care how you watch this movie, just watch it okay?!