Blood Simple (ST MARTIN'S ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY SERIES)

Director Joel Coen's and producer Ethan Coen's Blood Simple (1984, River Road Prods/Circle Releasing/Palace) is a contemporary noir thriller set in Texas. A taut, convoluted plot and imaginative direction made the independent release a word-of-mouth hit and established the Coen brothers' reputation for originality. Actors John Getz, Frances McDormand, and Dan Hedaya appear in the story in which a woman commits adultery, and her enraged husband hires a killer for revenge. Blackmail, violence, and mistaken assumptions lead to an edgy, exhilarating climax.

"...a brilliant, fiendishly complex plot, one that gets better as it goes along. There's a kind of geometric clarity to this intricate mechanism, and the audience gets to see how it works while the characters are always in the dark." --Newsweek

"It's plain wonderful. I'll be astonished if the studios give us as brilliant a chiller this year." --Stephen Schiff, Vanity Fair