According to some of the sources I've used to research this article, "Cosia Ruim"--the original title of what's now being called the first successful Portugese horror movie--may mean less BAD BLOOD than BAD THING. But BAD BLOOD is what the guys at Tartan Video have chosen to market it under...and while it may be a bit misleading (much like the DVD cover art, which promises a spookily levitating little girl who never--say to say--actually shows up in the film itself), let me be very clear: BAD BLOOD is a damn good thing to run across under any name, especially if you like your horror subtle, smart and exotic.

Right from the credit sequence on--a parade of vaguely disturbing details picked from a beautifully-shot ramble through the deep woods, minimalist score a medley of insectile thrums, clicks and neo-Hippie guitar--this atmospheric chiller bypasses every opportunity for pure shock in favor of character-heavy build-up, misdirection and existential dread. First-time screeners may catch hints and echoes--perhaps intentional--of everything from the original EXORCIST to the SIXTH SENSE, but I was most strongly reminded of the work of Val Lewton; movies made for insanely low budgets under wartime conditions, in which a sensually bleak tone prevails over everything and the least likely answers to any given question are always the easy ones.

After an urbane, hip and extremely secular academic (Adriano Luz) inherits his family's somewhat decayed ancestral "mansion"--which appears to be located in the rural Portugese equivalent of Nowhere Holler, Arkansas--his family are shocked when he not only decides to actually occupy it, but expects them to all come along for the ride. The locals soon prove to be equally upset by Professor Monteiro and his kin's sudden descent upon their community, since centuries of superstition hold that the Monteiro house is both metaphorically and literally cursed, and should never be occupied...particularly not by anyone named Monteiro.

In their "Making Of" supplement interviews, filmmakers Frederico Serra and Tiago Guedes claim they were trying to produce a ghost story which would also work as a sort of "psychological autopsy" of Portugese culture. Certainly, sharply-observed family and class dynamics play almost as large a part in the narrative as the hidden patterns and snares of unrecorded history. There's also a continuous meditation on the many ways that organized religion shores up the rotten infrastructure of "country" culture--often cooperating WITH superstition, of simple necessity, in order to do so; faith is another form of the supernatural, ignored at everyone's peril. Gradually, the characters are forced through experience to realize that so long as they remain in their current situation, blind trust in any system of belief (even pure reason) can be potentially dangerous.

Played out at a pace that may seem either exquisitely inevitable or incredibly slow by modern horror standards, BAD BLOOD remains both fiercely intelligent and deeply human throughout. Serra and Guedes (almost) always choose suggestion over revelation, creating an offputting soundscape whose very "normalcy" soon begins to seem highly suspect, playing strange games with deep focus which hint at the what may lurk in the literally unseen portions of the screen, as they move towards a tragic catharsis that will either frustrate or amaze. Like the best tours of any foreign country, it shows you a world both familiar and strange--a place you've palpably never been before, populated with fears you may nevertheless find you recognize...or even share.

THE END