"It’s a real minestrone stew of cinephilic allusions and influences: David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Gaspar Noé, Nicolas Winding Refn, Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani all come to mind. Indeed, Malfitano refers to the project as 'the drunken Australian step-cousin of American and European cinema', especially dating from the 1970s. This already makes Bloodshot Heart a national rarity!" - ADRIAN MARTIN

"Parish Malfitano’s Bloodshot Heart is an intriguing, edgy and compelling work in that rarely visited category of Australian film I call bravura arthouse. Unique in its imagery, and complemented by a surprising, varied and terrifically emotive score married to superb sound design, it is completely cinematic — and straight from the … er … heart. Relying on editing to blast through any resistance from audiences unprepared for adventure, Bloodshot Heart is as much about love and forgiveness as it is about grief, all tinged with violent emotions." - Andrew L. Urban

"Bloodshot Heart is a psychedelic, sensory delight and could be the next Aussie cult film classic.” FILMINK

“We get very excited when we see films that take a serious roll of the dice and come up sevens...and this new Australian feature does just that. Filled with vibrant (almost lurid) colour and textured dramatic set-pieces...Bloodshot Heart is packed with surprises and stylistic flourishes and introduces a vibrant new directorial talent in Parish Malfitano alongside a tightly-wound on-screen performance from one of our favourite Producers, Richard James Allen...One of the most popular films in the COUCHED program.” – Richard Sowada and Jack Sargeant, Festival Director and Program Director, Revelation Perth International Film Festival (Couched)

"A stylish-cum-lurid tapestry of trauma, memory and delusion, centred around a middle-aged Italian man living with his mother, who, suffice to say, should probably get out a bit more. For an Australian film, the script is bold, the way it doles its exposition out sparingly, leaving us guessing at the narrative and back-story for quite a few sequences in. After that, it's certainly engaging how the perspective alternates between our anti-hero's mind and a more objective reality. Ultimately, it settles into a kind of twisted psychodrama, reminiscent of colourful thrillers from the '70s and '80s from directors such as Cronenberg, De Palma, Lynch, or the more violent, lush vistas of more modern directors such as Noé or Von Trier." - - Bill Mousoulis, “A mini-Revelation”, PURE SHIT: AUSTRALIAN CINEMA

“If you want some advice, here’s where I’d be directing my attention and money… Bloodshot Heart concerns the increasingly bizarre tribulations visited upon middle-aged driving instructor Hans (Richard James Allen), a perennial sad sack who still lives with his mother (Dina Panozzo). Already haunted by an undisclosed past trauma, Hans starts to unravel after an attractive young lodger, Matilda (Emily David) moves in. Hans is smitten, Matilda has a dark past, and so we proceed down the De Palma/Hitchcock/Argento rabbit hole. Bloodshot Heart is a genre exercise, but which genre?” – Travis Johnson, “Five of the Best From Revelation Perth International Film Festival 2020”, CELLULOID & WHISKEY:

"Bloodshot Heart is an outstanding debut independent feature that is passionately reminiscent of classic European thrillers of the 70s predominately the Giallo. Its sharp narrative explores unrequited love and the mental decline of the lovelorn protagonist. Strongly cast and beautifully lensed, Bloodshot Heart will have you on the edge of your seat not knowing whether to laugh or cry.” - Jay Katz, NAKED WORLD (SBS MOVIE SHOW)

"Writer-Director Parish Malfitano has given Fantaspoa audiences a hallucinatory, Giallo-inspired mindfuck with Bloodshot Heart." - Liz Whittemore /Reel News Daily

"Parish Malfitano makes a strong debut as a feature film writer and director with this tragically beautiful tale of mental anguish and repressed trauma. A spectacular performance from Allen who captures all the little moments of someone who has suffered a traumatic event in his life and how his way of processing the events are doing more harm than good. Trippy, drug induced cinematography and editing add to Hans’ descent into the abyss that feels all too familiar at times." - into:screens. Davesarrafian