alexjames96
- Jul 29, 2023
- 2 min read

Bad Blood Short Film Review

★★

Starring: #AsadPanjwani and #CiaranCochlan

Bad Blood is a short comedy film that takes place at the height of the pandemic when distancing was mandatory and the fear of catching covid was spread worldwide. Director Rakesh Jaitly, pokes fun at some of the paranoia that many of us experienced during this time and exaggerates the hilarity of the rules and regulations which were enforced so cleverly by the powers above to keep the public safe. These were rules that all of us needed to abide, unless you live at number 10 of course, then it’s the do whatever you like, who cares approach! Of course, many of us needed to be aware of the space between others but some may have taken the 2 meters approach a little too literally and this is certainly the case for one of our characters in this drug deal gone completely wrong!

The film opens with characters Chris and David running out of a subway handcuffed. David has somehow managed to release one arm whilst Chris runs shortly after with both hands still firmly cuffed. As they run for freedom, David confronts Chris and argues that he is far too close and needs to remain 2 meters away from him, even drug dealers care about their health too! As the two men begin to argue, their chance for escape becomes further out of reach, and they become distracted by a slapstick play fight that drags on a little too long. Jaitly should have added to the witty dialogue further rather than prolong this playful fight between the two characters. Although amusing to some at first, it soon becomes tedious and the humour fizzles out very quickly. It would have been great to see back and forth banter between the two men. They clearly know each other well and have been working together for some time so it would have been interesting and entertaining to watch this relationship play out on screen coupled with some witty one liners to strengthen the comedic aspect of this short film.

The camera work to this was jarring in places, quite a lot of shakiness and the angles were occasionally disorientating. This did bring the piece down in some respect, combined with the limited locations which were used for this short. There needed to be more of an investment into a lot of aspects to this film, the dialogue, location, and cinematography could have been developed a lot further which would have given this short a lot of potential. All the pieces were there to make this a hilarious short film; however, it did not manage to meet expectations. If the characters were able to interact with each other more, Bad Blood would be able to open the story to some creative and funny scenarios for our main characters.