An everlasting evocative evil entity eventually evaluating and evidencing exactly when to evasively evolve to eviscerate everything for an even-handed family’s evanescence.

Set in the 80s, The Bloody Man focuses on a young boy named Sam (David Daniel) who’s struggling with grief over the death of his mom. He uses comic books, video games, and horror movies to cope. He’s the middle child with an older brother Michael and a younger sister Amy. His father must go out of town on business during the one-year commemoration of her passing. He does a school project on the Bloody Man, an evil entity that’s been around since the beginning of time. Sam inadvertently summons the Bloody Man who in turn wreaks havoc on his life.

Tuesday Knight plays Sam’s new stepmom, Kim. She’s struggling to find her place in the family. The kids won’t listen and her husband contradicts her in front of them constantly. Lisa Wilcox is Laurie, Sam’s biological mother. Her role adds the heart to the film. Much of the plot relies on Sam’s pain of losing her. She has a limited role, unfortunately. I could have used more of what their relationship was like before her untimely passing. The Bloody Man is played by Nicholas Redd. What could have been a charismatic new horror villain is reduced to a figure centred on cheap jump scares by shouting his lines randomly. He’s an interesting character but more was left to be desired because there’s no intimidation factor. Rather than being scary, he comes off as an obnoxious bully. The performances are all-around wooden but it isn’t enough to ruin the experience.

Directed by Daniel Benedict, he implements standard point-and-shoot techniques for The Bloody Man without many innovative filmmaking methods except for using coloured lights for certain scenes. The practical effects for the gore are another perk. It does have fun animation sequences for the comic book segments that are very well done. It also includes several references to classic horror films of the 70s and 80s.

Written by Daniel and Casi Benedict, the origin of the titular villain is told through a story Sam’s reading a la the Neverending Story or Princess Bride. The comic book in particular was the last gift he got from his birth mom before she died. The origin is drawn out, no pun intended, so things slow down for these parts yet key character elements are either not explained or are extremely underwritten. For example, when asked why he is evil, the answer is merely “He’s the Bloody Man”. The writers also explore themes of the meaning of family, sibling bonds, accountability of one’s actions, and the grieving process when losing a loved one. The finale felt rushed and underwhelming, therefore, had little emotional resonance.

The score by Jonathan Fan Octo Evans is reminiscent of the 70s and 80s horror movies adding to the aesthetic. It’s the highlight of the film.

Overall, I do recommend The Bloody Man for horror fans because it does have fun moments and callbacks to genre favourites. Its shortcomings include certain character growth not feeling earned either because characters change their tune with almost no explanation aside from the end is approaching and they need to wrap things up soon. At over 2 hours long, I felt the runtime because the story structure is inconsistently paced. For all its faults the film has its charm and artistic merits. Above all, it’s a cheesy fun horror flick. Make sure to stay for both after the credits scenes too. And remember, when blood relationships are put to the test it’s better to B positive when facing A negative situation.

6 out of 10