For all intents and purposes, Nicholson has raised his game. Bleading Lady touts higher production values, tighter scripting, better acting, and everything else to which filmmakers aspire. It's even got a storyline most fans wouldn't be afraid to relate to their mothers. Don Cardini (Dan Ellis in a standout performance) is a live wire driver for a low budget horror movie. (I'm not in the industry, but this is the one plot hole that bothers me - since when do low budget horror movies have money for hired drivers?) At any rate, Cardini seems to have a real thing for the film's scream queen star, the improbably named Riversa Red (Sindy Faraguna). You might say he's obsessed. Is he obsessed enough to slaughter everyone in order to get close to his object of affection? It's a valid question, with a complicated answer.

Right off the bat fans of the director's earlier works will ask themselves, "What's to be offended about?" Other than a few deliciously splashy kills, not much. Nicholson even tones down his ubiquitous gay jokes to one little jab that works out in the 'mo's favor. Of course on the plus side we get deliberate, even relaxed pacing that leaves most of the true horror until the final half-hour. Nicholson seems more assured of how to move things along like a pro, allowing his plot to develop naturally and skillfully. And though there are still a few performances that clearly come off as line readings, (neither the director of the movie-within-the movie, nor Red's original driver come off very well) Ellis and Faraguna particularly do themselves justice with turns that are nuanced and unforced, for crazy, low budget horror, that is.

Since we're missing Nicholson's usual trademarks of morally, sexually offensive sleaze and brutal torture and murder, we have to enjoy the remainder; professionalism and what is certainly a sadly (and quite amusingly) realistic look at low budget filmmaking. Those things are all well and good, but they plant this film firmly in the middle ground of its realm, whereas Nicholson has in the past excelled at jaw-dropping inappropriateness. As previously mentioned, we get a handful of nasty murders, murders that provide intermittent but not unexpected pleasure - based on what we expect - and an offensive, possibly CGI-enhanced ending that confounds. We get a movie that can hold its head high with pride in the crowd of DVD offerings clamoring from the shelves. But do we get what we've come to expect from director Ryan Nicholson? We might need to see what he comes up with next, if we're still looking for boundaries to be crossed.

The DVD

Video:
Breaking Glass Pictures has sent us a 'pre-retail' screener, meaning it has all the bells and whistles (read; extras) that will come with final product. However, since the screener is on a DVD-Rom, I can't really accurately comment on picture quality, except to note that the 1.78:1 widescreen presentation sports some nice, bloody reds, and may possibly suffer from some motion blur.

Sound:
The same goes for the 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound audio track. What is clear, however, is how the two-note score gets old fairly quickly. 'Don's Theme' is a nice, simple, melancholy tune with tastefully flanged guitar, but it merits only limited use, not the feature-length workout it gets here. The same can be said for the other, more disco-fied motif that also outstays its welcome.

Extras:
First off is a Commentary Track with Nicholson and Ellis, and it's a truly fine one, proving these guys are serious and also fun. Next is "Behind the Wheel": Making Bleading Lady, a 24-minute, casual BTS featurette which finds an interviewer cornering cast and crew with his questions everywhere from on set at night, to swimming in a lake while having fun. Left Coast TV presents On Set of Bleading Lady, at 15 minutes, is a more traditional BTS press piece with an awkward cable TV hostess. You also get 15 minutes of Deleted Scenes that aren't always interesting (or even intelligible) but should be fun for real indie horror fans with an interest in production. A 30-second Alternate Opening maybe gives away too much of the end, but on the other hand, maybe it doesn't. You also get the Trailer, a Sexy, Gory Stills Gallery, and Trailers for other Vicious Circle Films.

Final Thoughts:
Notoriously offensive horror-meister Ryan Nicholson makes a bid for legitimacy with Bleading Lady. He succeeds, but it might not be what we want. Professional pacing, better acting, and all the other things you expect from 'real' movies are present. This is straight-ahead psychological horror done in a manner that plants it squarely in the middle of the pack (for direct-to-DVD exploitation fare). Yet, the sick amongst us have come to depend on Nicholson to offend us deeply, and layer on heinous, jaw-dropping gore. So while Bleading Lady and its basket of extras merits a hearty Rent It rating, we're hoping Nicholson will put his hard-won skills back to work on the sick stuff. With good actors and a steady hand on the camera, his next shocker might be the one to really enrage us.