Bloody Knuckles (Movie Review)

Horror, Comedy, and freedom of speech collide in new film Bloody Knuckles. Written and directed by Canadian Matt O’Mahoney, Bloody Knuckles has been featured at a list of film festivals, including Fantasia International Film Festival, and took home three awards at Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival in 2014. Finally, after a great deal of positive buzz surrounding this wacky film, on October 27th, Artsploitation Films unleashed Bloody Knuckles on Blu-ray/DVD just in time for the Halloween season.

Still from Bloody Knuckles

Starring Australia’s Adam Boys (If I Had Wings 2013, Leprechaun: Origins 2014) as Travis, a Comic Book artist who pushes the boundaries of obscenity, he soon finds himself in a great deal of trouble with a controversial businessman in Chinatown, Leonard Fong (Kasey Ryne Mazak: This Means War 2012, Godzilla 2014). Mr. Fong, a ruthless, humorless criminal, finds out Travis has been depicting him in a shameless fashion in one of his comics and as a result sends his goons to fetch Travis to teach him a lesson. Capturing Travis, Mr. Fong sends the artist a message to stop drawing him in his comics by ordering his hand severed.

Completely shocked by what has happened to him, Travis sinks into depression and his fans of the underground urge him to triumph on with his comics. Seeming all but broken, drunken, and hopeless, out of no where, Travis’ dismembered hand, somewhere in a gutter, comes back to life. The limb, not nearly as weakened as Travis, vows to take revenge on Mr. Fong and his gang with the help of a man inspired by Travis’ comics, Homo Dynamous (Dwayne Bryshun: Mardröm 2007, Prime Meridian 2010). With vigilant cut-off hand and the S & M masked crusader, a mass of blood will be spilled, promising the good guys will make a stand.

Still from Bloody Knuckles

Upon first view, Bloody Knuckles may come across as a bit of a confusing and absurd storyline, but after letting the film sink in a little, one will see this is more than just an outrageous Horror Comedy. Yes, there is blood, gore, plenty of laughs, and also a lot of completely politically incorrect topics approached. With that said, that was most likely O’Mahoney’s objective with this film. It is the type of film which can be looked at with a tongue-in-cheek mindset, but also could be looked at as stand for freedom of speech. In a world where merely everyone is offended by everything, the end result will be complete censorship, thus chaining up creativity, humor, and artistic expression. One should not be bullied into censoring what they create because one person or a group of people cannot take a joke. In that sense, O’Mahoney’s Bloody Knuckles makes the audience feel grossed out, amused, but also left with a sense of what freedom is all about.

Still from Bloody Knuckles

In no sense is Bloody Knuckles a serious film, in fact is it quite outrageous. Boys does a fine job as the lead man in Travis, and Gabrielle Giraud (The Industry 2014, A Girl’s Best Friend 2015) plays Amy, a journalist turned his love interest, very well too. For O’Mahoney’s full-length feature debut, Bloody Knuckles is a winner and one worth checking out for some laughs and gross-outs in one tasteless package. CrypticRock gives this film 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Artsploitation Films

Purchase Bloody Knuckles on Blu-ray/DVD on Amazon