Family Blood

Remember Vinessa Shaw? She was the lead female (Excluding the witches) in cult favorite Hocus Pocus (1993). Since then she's done.........and then there was.........and who could forget? Erm, stuff?

Here she leads as a former drug addict turned vampire and the affect it has on her and her two children. I can't help but feel like the whole movie was one big metaphor for addiction.

There is a problem though and it's a big one. The movie is unforgivably boring, so boring in fact I fell asleep about 1/3 of the way through and had to watch the thing from scratch again the next day.

It's SO lifeless, the characters simply aren't likeable and honestly until the last few minutes nothing happens. On top of that I see people claiming this is a new spin on the tired vampire formula, my question is how? How is this a new spin? This has been done before, the whole thing is devoid of originality.

Not one for fans of vampire cinema or for that matter cinema period.

The Good:

.......nope

The Bad:

I actually fell asleep and had to watch it again

So boring

Lifeless nonsense

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Vinessa Shaw has nothing to contribute to the industry

Regular vampires > Twilight Vampires > These vampires

Different from what you might be used to but with that comes intrigue. Only complaint is that despite the slow process, character development was kind of a miss, as well as certain aspects of the movie where they had a chance to totally invent itself since it was a pretty original idea. Instead they fell back on tired ideas. When it comes to casting not to bad pretty good fits except for a role that really wasn't too important. Ajiino Alexus did a fine job but doesn't pass for a high school kid, which falls on the casting director. If you have time give it a watch.

I just watched Family Blood on Netflix, knowing that it hadn't been favorably reviewed so my expectations were lowered. I'm still a bit surprised by the low rating on here (currently a 4.3), the film has a lot going for it, but also has it's share of issues. First off, the production values on this one are excellent, especially assuming this was likely a lower budgeted film. But a great looking and sound film does not make a film great. The story is pretty interesting, if nothing totally new. A mother of two teenagers who is trying to overcome a drug addiction becomes a vampire (via another vampire) and then begins to deal with her new addiction to blood. The blood addiction being compared to drugs is very heavy handed, but that's where this one redeems itself a bit. It focuses more on drama than horror, and so if you're looking for straight up horror this one is not for you, however if you like some drama in the mix, you might want to give it a shot. I enjoyed the slow pace, as I mentioned before, my expectations were that it was heavily focused on drama and so I didn't feel disappointed in the lack of horror on screen. However there are numerous unnecessary "jump" scares (that didn't make me jump) where they are just too forced. Also how many times are people going to call out a character's name? Holy! Half the dialogue in this was just saying the a name of a character, often multiple times over. The biggest issue to me though was the editing. I don't mean every cut, but most scene transitions were handled clumsily. It seemed like they needed to fill a gap in between scenes and transitions were awkward. Characters felt like they just appeared and disappeared as the the filmmakers needed at any moment during a scene. They'd wander down a hallway for no real reason and then they'd be somewhere else entirely a couple of shots later. It was strange.

Overall the story is decent, if maybe sometimes a bit slow, and it gets bogged down by some odd editing choices. The actors do a commendable job, and the cinematography is great. If you're looking for horror then skip it, if you are looking for something more about the drama with horror elements then it might be worth a shot.

When it comes to modern Horror, lowered expectations have been serving me quite well for over a decade now. Think about it, it's a lot easier to enjoy a film even when it's mediocre and below if one's expectations are for a mediocre and below viewing experience. It even allows for a few pleasant surprises, when one of these films turn out to be good. In the case of Family Blood, not expecting a masterpiece (and not getting one) has made it so I actually enjoyed it, albeit to a limited extent.

Considering this title doesn't currently have a synopsis and the limited summary gives very little details - I consider most details (even those one finds out in the first 30 minutes) as spoilers and will refrain from mentioning them. Suffice it to say that the best part about Family Blood, in my opinion, is the portraying of protagonist Ellie's attempts to cope with her addictions, both her original one and her new one. The acting is also great, especially by the younger cast, i.e. Ellie's children Kyle and Amy who are forced to see their mother spiraling out of control.

Both IMDB and Netflix have this title tagged as Horror as well as Thriller, which in my opinion is utterly misleading and almost deceptive. Three or four Horror scenes and a plot revolving around a single element usually considered a Horror component do not make a Horror film. Family Blood is a good enough Drama and quite suspenseful at times, but it is far from being actually scary in any way. As an addict myself (clean and sober, going on seven years, yay me) I got some added emotional value out of watching this, but I doubt most people would find this title to be more than average, at best.

In summary, Family Blood is not unwatchable and could even be quite enjoyable, with lowered expectations. It's one of these films available on Netflix which are suspenseful enough to enjoy and not enough scary or horrific to ruin a good meal or snack. Not really recommended, not really not recommended, just average. You might enjoy it, you might not.

Decently cast & acting,was overall ok. Cinematography felt amateur,editing was poor. Bad weather? Need something to watch? Check it out.