Directed by Matthew Pope
Written by Don M. Thompson and Matthew Pope
Starring Bethany Anne Lind, Will Patton, Elisabeth Röhm, Jimmy Gonzales and Jared Ivers
Running time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for language and violence

by Audrey Callerstrom

Blood On Her Name is a meticulous and taut feature-length debut from director Matthew Pope. From its first scene, which finds Lee (Bethany Anne Lind) next to a dead body in her auto shop, I was reminded of 2013’s Blue Ruin, another thriller that showed an ordinary person in over their head. Lee is tough, but it’s not like she’s doing Sarah Connor pull-ups to prepare for the visit from her ex’s friend, who comes to her auto shop one night looking for money, and whom Lee kills in self-defense.

We never see the altercation that Lee had with the man. The film opens with an empty gas can next to a pool of what we first think is oil, but is in fact blood (all the blood in this film has a dark tinge). The film is set somewhere in or near the South, which, like other elements of its story, is either evident or comes about organically. Nothing in this film is explained through lazy exposition. As Lee meets with her teen son Ryan’s (Jared Ivers) new parole officer, we learn that Ryan’s father is in prison. Lee and her ex own a failing auto shop which is presumably a front for stealing cars (or as Lee justifies, it’s simply “swapping tabs.”) The film would have ended had Lee decided to dump the body as originally planned. Instead, just as she’s about to dump the body into a lake during the early hours of the morning, she sees texts and calls on the man’s phone from “Home,” and, feeling guilty, she decides to return the body to his family.

At less than 90 minutes, Blood On Her Name is careful not to waste a scene or line of dialogue. Every moment is a part of the build for what unfolds in the film’s final moments. Lind is terrific, as is character actor Will Patton, who plays her father, Richard, a gruffly sheriff with questionable morals. Patton is great with some tough lines, like when he tells a remorseful Lee, “I’ve seen priests less hung up on old sins,” or when he asks her, “What’s stuck in your craw?” The film almost pushes these occasional lines of comic-book dialogue too far when Dani (Elisabeth Röhm), the dead man’s girlfriend, tells Lee, “Careful, mama bear, we both got cubs to worry about,” but in the context of the scene, it feels profound.

Much of what makes Blood On Her Name effective is less with the story but with how it unfolds, building tension with small moments and details. Lee, a petite woman, grunts while she struggles to bring the body bag into the boat. Ryan, dismissive of his new parole officer, leaves a little bit of urine on his sample just to irritate him. As Lee meets with her drug dealer for what appear to be anti-anxiety meds, she slaps her hand to her chest in a panic, realizing that her signature wrench necklace likely came off during her brawl with the man. During the film, I felt a heaviness on my chest that only subsided moments after it was over. I even thought I heard a police siren on the nearby highway only moments before Lee remarks to her employee, the overly loyal Rey (Jimmy Gonzales) “I keep thinking I hear sirens. Is that weird?” The growing sense of dread is palpable as the implications of Lee’s decision unfold. My only criticism of Blood On Her Name is that, in Pope’s transition to feature-length films, there is a lack of fluidity in how the scenes transition. An extra shot or two could have made it clear that yes, we are back in Lee’s house, or yes, Lee has in fact driven to the trailer park to check on the man’s body. Still, for a rather compact film, it’s a suspenseful, engaging and promising debut.

On demand and in select theaters February 28.