Bleeders | |
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Directed by | Peter Svatek |
Written by | Charles Adair Dan O'Bannon Ronald Shusett |
Produced by | Julie Allan Pieter Kroonenburg |
Starring | Roy Dupuis Kristin Lehman Rutger Hauer |
Cinematography | Barry Gravelle |
Edited by | Heidi Haines |
Music by | Alan Reeves |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Fries Film Group |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
Bleeders (also known as Hemoglobin) is a 1997 Canadian horror film directed by Peter Svatek and based upon H. P. Lovecraft's story "The Lurking Fear". It premiered at the Fantastisk Film Festival Lund in Sweden on September 14, 1997, and was released direct to video the following year. [1] It is the last original script written by Dan O'Bannon produced during his lifetime.
John and Kathleen Strauss are a French-Canadian couple attempting to uncover the secret to John's rare blood disease. They encounter Dr. Marlowe, who is intrigued by the case. They are unaware that the Grand Manan Island in Canada's New Brunswick which they are about to set foot upon is home to the Van Dam family, mutant-like creatures who have become deformed and bloodthirsty from centuries of inbreeding. Their mutation began with their relative Eva Van Dam, who had a incestuous relationship with her twin brother. Also, they are fully functioning hermaphrodites, capable of reproducing with themselves. They need to survive on (dead or alive) human flesh.
John discovers that he is a Van Dam, born normal looking and taking part in normal society, but his rare blood disease can only be suppressed with human flesh and sex with his siblings.
HorrorNews.net panned the film overall, criticizing it for its "abundance of clichés" and commenting that they would "be damned if there was anything in this picture worth seeing again". [2] Moria gave the film two stars and stated that "one can see that a number of sequences have been designed on paper in a way that could have had some shock impact had they been directed by someone with half an ounce of talent." [3]
Hemoglobin is a protein containing iron that facilitates the transport of oxygen in red blood cells. Almost all vertebrates contain hemoglobin, with the exception of the fish family Channichthyidae. Hemoglobin in the blood carries oxygen from the respiratory organs to the other tissues of the body, where it releases the oxygen to enable aerobic respiration which powers the animal's metabolism. A healthy human has 12 to 20 grams of hemoglobin in every 100 mL of blood. Hemoglobin is a metalloprotein, a chromoprotein, and globulin.
Hemoglobinopathy is the medical term for a group of inherited blood disorders involving the hemoglobin, the protein of red blood cells. They are single-gene disorders and, in most cases, they are inherited as autosomal co-dominant traits.
Anemia or anaemia is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen. This can be due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin available for oxygen transport, or abnormalities in hemoglobin that impair its function. The name is derived from Ancient Greek ἀν- (an-) 'not', and αἷμα (haima) 'blood'. When anemia comes on slowly, the symptoms are often vague, such as tiredness, weakness, shortness of breath, headaches, and a reduced ability to exercise. When anemia is acute, symptoms may include confusion, feeling like one is going to pass out, loss of consciousness, and increased thirst. Anemia must be significant before a person becomes noticeably pale. Additional symptoms may occur depending on the underlying cause. Anemia can be temporary or long term and can range from mild to severe.
Haptoglobin is the protein that in humans is encoded by the HP gene. In blood plasma, haptoglobin binds with high affinity to free hemoglobin released from erythrocytes, and thereby inhibits its deleterious oxidative activity. Compared to Hp, hemopexin binds to free heme. The haptoglobin-hemoglobin complex will then be removed by the reticuloendothelial system.
Cyanosis is the change of body tissue color to a bluish-purple hue, as a result of decrease in the amount of oxygen bound to the hemoglobin in the red blood cells of the capillary bed. Cyanosis is apparent usually in the body tissues covered with thin skin, including the mucous membranes, lips, nail beds, and ear lobes. Some medications may cause discoloration such as medications containing amiodarone or silver. Furthermore, mongolian spots, large birthmarks, and the consumption of food products with blue or purple dyes can also result in the bluish skin tissue discoloration and may be mistaken for cyanosis. Appropriate physical examination and history taking is a crucial part to diagnose cyanosis. Management of cyanosis involves treating the main cause, as cyanosis isn’t a disease, it is a symptom.
Polycythemia is a laboratory finding in which the hematocrit and/or hemoglobin concentration are increased in the blood. Polycythemia is sometimes called erythrocytosis, and there is significant overlap in the two findings, but the terms are not the same: polycythemia describes any increase in hematocrit and/or hemoglobin, while erythrocytosis describes an increase specifically in the number of red blood cells in the blood.
Fetal hemoglobin, or foetal haemoglobin is the main oxygen carrier protein in the human fetus. Hemoglobin F is found in fetal red blood cells, and is involved in transporting oxygen from the mother's bloodstream to organs and tissues in the fetus. It is produced at around 6 weeks of pregnancy and the levels remain high after birth until the baby is roughly 2–4 months old. Hemoglobin F has a different composition than adult forms of hemoglobin, allowing it to bind oxygen more strongly; this in turn enables the developing fetus to retrieve oxygen from the mother's bloodstream, which occurs through the placenta found in the mother's uterus.
Python is a 2000 made-for-TV horror film directed by Richard Clabaugh. The film features several cult favorite actors, including William Zabka of The Karate Kid fame, Wil Wheaton, Casper Van Dien, Jenny McCarthy, Keith Coogan, Robert Englund, Dana Barron, David Bowe, and Sean Whalen.
Alpha-thalassemia is a form of thalassemia involving the genes HBA1 and HBA2. Thalassemias are a group of inherited blood conditions which result in the impaired production of hemoglobin, the molecule that carries oxygen in the blood. Normal hemoglobin consists of two alpha chains and two beta chains; in alpha-thalassemia, there is a quantitative decrease in the amount of alpha chains, resulting in fewer normal hemoglobin molecules. Furthermore, alpha-thalassemia leads to the production of unstable beta globin molecules which cause increased red blood cell destruction. The degree of impairment is based on which clinical phenotype is present.
Sickle cell trait describes a condition in which a person has one abnormal allele of the hemoglobin beta gene, but does not display the severe symptoms of sickle cell disease that occur in a person who has two copies of that allele. Those who are heterozygous for the sickle cell allele produce both normal and abnormal hemoglobin.
Beta thalassemias are a group of inherited blood disorders. They are forms of thalassemia caused by reduced or absent synthesis of the beta chains of hemoglobin that result in variable outcomes ranging from severe anemia to clinically asymptomatic individuals. Global annual incidence is estimated at one in 100,000. Beta thalassemias occur due to malfunctions in the hemoglobin subunit beta or HBB. The severity of the disease depends on the nature of the mutation.
Doctor X is a 1932 American pre-Code mystery horror film produced jointly by First National and Warner Bros. Based on the 1931 play originally titled The Terror by Howard W. Comstock and Allen C. Miller, it was directed by Michael Curtiz and stars Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray and Lee Tracy.
Bleeding usually means the leakage or loss of blood from the body.
Delta-beta thalassemia is a rare form of thalassemia in which there is a reduced production of hemoglobin subunit delta and hemoglobin subunit beta and raised levels of hemoglobin subunit gamma. It is an autosomal recessive disorder.
Congenital dyserythropoietic anemia (CDA) is a rare blood disorder, similar to the thalassemias. CDA is one of many types of anemia, characterized by ineffective erythropoiesis, and resulting from a decrease in the number of red blood cells (RBCs) in the body and a less than normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. CDA may be transmitted by both parents autosomal recessively or dominantly.
Hemoglobin Lepore syndrome is typically an asymptomatic hemoglobinopathy, which is caused by an autosomal recessive genetic mutation. The Hb Lepore variant, consisting of two normal alpha globin chains (HBA) and two delta-beta globin fusion chains which occurs due to a "crossover" between the delta (HBD) and beta globin (HBB) gene loci during meiosis and was first identified in the Lepore family, an Italian-American family, in 1958. There are three varieties of Hb Lepore, Washington, Baltimore and Hollandia. All three varieties show similar electrophoretic and chromatographic properties and hematological findings bear close resemblance to those of the beta-thalassemia trait; a blood disorder that reduces the production of the iron-containing protein hemoglobin which carries oxygen to cells and which may cause anemia.
Brides of Blood is a 1968 Filipino horror film, co-directed by Eddie Romero and Gerardo de Leon, and starring John Ashley, Kent Taylor, Beverly Hills, Eva Darren and Mario Montenegro. It was the first movie that Ashley made in the Philippines, beginning a long association between Ashley and that country. Brides of Blood was the second in a series of four horror films produced by Romero and Kane W. Lynn known as the "Blood Island" series, which also included Terror Is a Man, The Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Beast of Blood. Brides of Blood was later released to television syndication in some areas as Island of Living Horror.
Hemoglobin O (HbO) is a rare type of hemoglobin in which there is a substitution of glutamic acid by lysine as in hemoglobin C, but at different positions. Since the amino acid substitution can occur at different positions of the β-globin chain of the protein, there are several variants. In hemoglobin O-Arab (HbO-Arab) substitution occurs at position 121, while in hemoglobin O-Padova (HbO-Padova) it is at 11 position, and in hemoglobin O Indonesia (HbOIna) it is at 116.
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde is a Canadian film directed by Paolo Barzman and starring Dougray Scott in the title role. Set and shot in Montréal, Québec, Canada, it was released theatrically in both the US and UK in 2008, and then on DVD in 2009. It was given as "second-tier premiere" on the ION network on May 17, 2008.
Hemoglobin M disease is a rare form of hemoglobinopathy, characterized by the presence of hemoglobin M (HbM) and elevated methemoglobin (metHb) level in blood. HbM is an altered form of hemoglobin (Hb) due to point mutation occurring in globin-encoding genes, mostly involving tyrosine substitution for proximal (F8) or distal (E7) histidine residues. HbM variants are inherited as autosomal dominant disorders and have altered oxygen affinity. The pathophysiology of hemoglobin M disease involves heme iron autoxidation promoted by heme pocket structural alteration.