Hollywood movies typically assume that audiences need everything explained out loud in words, often multiple times in painfully written exposition. But the Coens manage to accomplish the same thing without any dialogue at all. As the title suggests, Blood Simple has some violence that gets pretty rough. Even sixteen years after its original release, the violence is startling and original. The burial scene had me on a constant seesaw between horror and laughter.
Bullets shoot through walls, spilling light from one room to another.
In the confrontation at the climax of the movie, Abby doesn't know the identity of her attacker even after she puts a knife through his hand. As in so many of their movies, there is an undertone of black comedy that serves to make the violence that much more real and frightening. Each of their movies is a perfect whole, incorporating solid writing, directing, acting, score, lighting, and everything else into a single story. I've learned more about the art of filmmaking form watching their movies than from any other source. Blood Simple is a classic.