Review of Blood Simple (1985) by Anthony M — 05 Mar 2013

Blood sickening and terse, with a story as old as time but told so elegantly and with so much fear, the Coen brothers shock and awe with their first feature film. The actual plotting of the film, the climax, the reveal, and the bitter platitudes of enraged performances make this film great.

The characters themselves are not all that engaging compared to some of the more frightening and thrilling scenes presented. The story isn't all too original either, stemming from a jealous husband (Hedaya), out to ruin the life of his former wife (McDormand) and her new lover (Getz), a former bartender at his establishment.

The film's originality stems from a private eye named Visser (Walsh) whose double cross leads to a series of misunderstandings and terror stricken scenes between the lovers as they try to outsmart the gumshoe to ensure their own survival.

After Visser is hired by the husband to kill the couple and get rid of their bodies, it becomes a blood war between all four of them. Several major characters' lives are transformed in a matter of seconds, but the film moves through it, keeping the biting terror on their faces but leaving behind the connotations, the reasoning that says it will all be okay.

There's a point of no return which gets guiltily crossed time and again, but it is each character's death or injury that shocks time and again. There is nothing gratuitous or gory about what the Coens show onscreen, but there is one scene in particular that has been named as one of the scariest in reviewer's lists and I am inclined to agree.

Though not touched with the exactness and flair of later Coen brother's films it is a step in the right direction, and a great inclination to their later talents and expansion in genre and technique.