Watch Bloody Wednesday For Free

Too much of everything

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

An absolute waste of money

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The brain is a complex and fragile organ that can easily develop a fault if not properly maintained, and severe mental illness, if left unchecked, can have dire consequences. In Bloody Wednesday, a nifty low-budget study of a man's descent into violent madness, stressed mechanic Harry blows a brain gasket and is taken into psychiatric care, but is later released into the community under the care of his brother (who is far too busy to give the job the time it really requires).Unfortunately, Harry is still not firing on all pistons: he imagines other people in the vacant hotel where he resides (shades of The Shining here—another great study of insanity); he believes that he has intimate relations with his doctor; he talks to his teddy bear; he is attacked by snakes in his sleep. Harry's fragile state is further exacerbated by a gang of street punks with a score to settle. A complete and utter breakdown is inevitable and with Harry possessing firearms, the outcome is going to be bloody.Given this film's current low rating on IMDb (3.7 out of 10) I can only imagine that viewers were expecting a totally different type of movie (a cheesy 80s slasher perhaps) and reacted negatively out of disappointment. A shame, because behind the somewhat exploitative title and tag-line (You'll pray for Thursday!) lies a really powerful and intelligent film that deserves far better treatment.Raymond Elmendorf's central performance is superb, the actor creating a believable, complex character that deserves the viewer's sympathy—a severely ill person requiring close medical supervision but who has sadly fallen through the cracks of an overworked and under resourced system. Director Mark G. Gilhuis skilfully and sensitively handles Harry's mental disintegration, masterfully blending his fantasy world with reality so that, just as it seems like Harry is making progress, it becomes clear that he is in fact spiralling even further out of control, his delusional state becoming more and more commonplace. The tragedy is heartbreaking.The final act—in which Harry enters a coffee shop armed to the teeth and proceeds to blow away the customers—is suitably brutal, bloody and chilling, a shocking reminder of similar horrific stories that regularly make the news—events that might have been avoided if only the signals had been spotted early enough and the correct course of action taken.

Bloody Wednesday treads some of the territory I value the most in cinema, the mind in disarray, its structure embodied in architecture, the pressures within and without. It also as a social agenda, which matters less to me as a viewer but does have the advantage of being something I agree rather strongly with. It is perhaps unfortunate that it announces itself so boldly with the title and opening text, telling instantly that this is less cinema of exploration than cinema as arrow, clean flight from singing bow to grisly target, but its a well mounted and weird enough affair to mostly forgive its shortcomings. The tale is of Harry Curtis, divorced, perpetual loser, who wigs out one afternoon and loses his job as a mechanic, then rocks up to a church service in the buff and is sent for psychiatric evaluation for his efforts. But even though the doctor has her suspicions, he can't stay and ends up living in an abandoned hotel. Then slowly but surely, things get out of control... The key reference point is The Shining, hotel of grand spaces and dark corridors, menacing history and beguiling phantasms a mirror for the mind, a place to get lost and overwhelmed. But instead of gorgeous decor and Steadicam shots there's a talking teddy bear. And snakes, and ghosts that map to Curtis and his frustrations rather directly, and a street gang who turn up to make his life even harder. Its a curious and somewhat derivative brew with an ending inspired by a real life massacre of a few years previous, but generally decent writing pulls it off in engaging fashion. Characters are nicely defined and there are some interesting and quirky lines it has a writerly feel to it rather than the rather flat point a to point b no fuss no muss approach that may such films take. This is probably due to being written by Philip Yordan, who scored a Oscar win in the 50's and a couple more nominations, and though relegated to the realms of low budget horror by the 80's clearly figured he should still take his best shot at every project. Some of the performances help, Raymond Emendorf has a good blank melancholy that steadily grows to creepy intensity, Pamela Baker concerned and likable as his doctor, and Jeff O'Haco bes as the lead street tough, arrogant and venomous but smart in his way. Other performances are weaker, but it doesn't matter too much, the film moves nicely and delivers when it comes to the crunch, an appropriately bloody showdown with decent body-count. Altogether this isn't a film to set anyones life alight, but its good fun in its little way and a thoroughly agreeable late night time filler. Strong 6/10.

Your average neighborhood coffee shop is the scene of a massacre; then, the story shifts to one Raymond Elmendorf (as Harry Curtis). Mr. Elmendorf is employed as an automobile mechanic; but, he can't "make things fit anymore." Unable to repair a car, the newly unemployed Elmendorf attends a church service in the buff. Society doesn't appreciate his public exhibition, and Elmendorf is locked up. He begins to see sexy psychiatrist Pamela Baker (as Dr. Johnson)… The best scenes occur after Elmendorf is released as an outpatient, and moves into an eerily photographed apartment building (with his madness). He is terrified by monsters from the Id, and punks from the street. Gilhuis/Ryan do some psycho creepy stuff. Jeff O'Haco (as Animal) has a nice pool hall scene. Wife Teresa Mae Allen (as Elaine) has a sexy scene (which turns ugly, of course).If "Bloody Wednesday" was supposed to show how this man could massacre people in a coffee shop, it misfires.

I am so glad to see that other people have seen this film. My friends and I are huge fans after a Sunday afternoon viewing of Bloody Wednesday. There is a scene where the head "gangster" (who talks like Wayne Newton) gives Harry a speech in a pool hall. It lasts about 5 minutes and makes absolutely no sense. It goes along the lines of: "You still want that gun in the window? What are you gonna do with a gun anyway, they're no good. You need one of these (pointing to a lead pipe), one smack across the mouth with one of these babies and you'll wind up with a four thousand buck dentist bill. There's a lot of fat citizens in this town that think they got it made with they're gold watches and chains and they're credit cards. I hate the bastards. S*** man I eat steak every night, costs me 15 bucks, body needs the protein." If you miss this speech and other wonderful scenes such as the trial where the teddy bear is the judge, you are missing out on a critical part of human life. Do not delay going through this experience. If you already own it do yourself a favor and watch the pool hall speech again. Phenomenal.