Bliss, directed by Joe Begos, is one of the most successful horror films of recent years. It would be wrong to call it just Horror. As a movie, Bliss is an excellent job on the whole. Even so, I added Bliss to my list of the best films of 2020 without hesitation. If Gaspar Noe would team up with Kathryn Bigelow to make a movie, it would probably be the same as crazy as Bliss. The film, which we can also call a psychedelic trip, includes art, drugs, metal, blood, and Gore and offers more its audience with a completely insane adventure that Americans call “fucking sick, bro”.
Let’s briefly touch on the subject… Dezzy can not finish the picture the auction house ordered, so they constantly press her for the deadline. Dezzy, who has no idea what to draw, goes into the nightlife to distract her mind, and this time she meets with different people; experiences a different kind of fun. When she wakes up in her room with a hangover, she realizes that she has painted at night. But she doesn’t remember anything about and how she did or anything about it. Worse still, the hangovers start to recur every night. And each day the picture continues to advance a little bit. But as the painting continues, Dezzy begins to lose her sanity.
Director Joe Begos combines a bright and suffocating ’70s narcotic story with a Kathryn Bigelow-style vampire theme to create a Taxi Driver horror movie set in Los Angeles. Throughout the film, we have difficulty deciphering whether the movie is about a vampire tale or a drug addiction story. But yet, we are sure that everything that happens is real. Dezzy is creating an irreversible piece day by day. It consumes her health, mind, and worse, her life, but whatever happens, everything is for her art.
It’s obvious that Joe Begos is a movie buff. The movie is adorned with references from many different themes and movies. But the director also wanted to make a fresh and innovative film. There is turmoil, especially in movies where many things happen, but Joe Begos manages the chaos well. The movie has everything from group sex to drugs, from David Cronenberg-style death to vampiric metamorphosis. Until Dezzy meets two strangers, the film is about a rundown painter, but after the meeting, it turns into a Gaspar Noe-like artistic porn with lots of blood sauce.
Of course, Dora Madison, who played Dezzy here, should also be congratulated. Although Joe Begos has a crazy approach to directing, half of the success belongs to Dora Madison. The actress, who exhibits a groundbreaking level of acting for horror movies, manages to drag the story from beginning to end. Especially in horror cinema, the actor must capture realism. Dora Madison does better; she makes us live every second of it.
To sum it up… Bliss is a color chaos that pushes the limits of the mind. Struggling with the pressure created by the painting she has to finish, Dezzy also tries to survive with the imperatives of the vampirism she has turned into. In fact, although the events made Dezzy uneasy, when she sees that her work goes twisty good, she accepts her bloodlust and even risks killing for her masterpiece. Dezzy, who is willing to die for her work, finishes her painting and dies after all. We can call it: A happy end.
Cast & Crew
director: Joe Begos
writers: Joe Begos
starring: Dora Madison, Tru Collins, Rhys Wakefield
USA | 1986 | 80 MINUTES |