Mike reviews this week's Artsploitation release, Bloody Knuckles, new to blu-ray.
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| "Finally someone brought out the gimp!" |
Free speech and political correctness are popular topics of
discussion these days. The brutal murder
of writers and cartoonists at the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in
January proved that even art and satire are not immune from consequence if the
offended party doesn't see the humor.
The film Bloody Knuckles may have been made before the Hebdo massacre,
but its overall themes are eerily parallel to the tragedy. Unfortunately, what could have been clever
satire gets muddied in a bloody mess of a film that can't quite decide how
seriously it wants to take itself.
The problem with Bloody Knuckles is that the intended
message gets lost in a lot of what else is going on. The anti-censorship rants at the story's
heart are folded awkwardly into a plot reminiscent of the 199 film Idle
Hands, with some weird S&M stuff thrown in for good measure. None of these concepts mesh as well together
as the viewer might hope. Somewhere in
this presentation could have been a pretty smart, interesting story had the
correct balance between these been struck.
Unfortunately writer/director Matt O. appeared to be in a bit over his
head, resulting in a tonally very uneven film.
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| "You don't know where those fingers have been!" |
The special effects, which are well-done considering the
likely budget limitations, are a saving grace.
Besides the expected gore and other bodily fluids, the centerpiece is
our hero's disembodied hand. Though many
of the same techniques used to create it date back as far as 1991's The
Addams Family, the effect is still impressive here, and it results in a few
interesting and fun scenes. Most of the
effects are of the gross-out variety though, and Bloody Knuckles reaches
for the stars here. It's not quite on
the ridiculousness level of the legendary Riki-Oh: The Story of Riki,
but it certainly does try. The acting in
the film is also better than it has any right to be, with all of the leads
turning in some impressive performances given the material.
Score
-Mike Stec
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