Blood Relations

It took some time to really get going, but once it did, I was rather pleased. It's so refreshing to see things that you'll never find in a mainstream film. There were things in this movie that were downright sick, and yet those were the parts that I enjoyed the most. The setup was perhaps a little slow, but the finale was one that I won't soon forget. It's not for all tastes, but if you can enjoy films that are more than a little warped, then it is truly worth seeing.

I rented this movie totally by mistake thinking it was Claude Chabrol's "Blood Relatives", but it didn't turn out to be a TOTAL waste of a rental fee. It's kind of an early "erotic thriller", but unlike those films it doesn't let itself get totally overwhelmed by long sex scenes and actually does function somewhat as an inheritance thriller with some horror movie scenes involving graphic brain surgery thrown in for good measure.

French actress Lydie Dernier was living proof that you didn't need to be able to act or even pronounce the English language if you were willing to doff all your duds in any piece of crap movie defecated by the low-budget Hollywood film industry. This is definitely a step up from "Satan's Princess" (and let's not even speak of that movie she was in Robbie Benson). Naturally Lydie takes her clothes off a lot, and this is the only film I know of(aside from that dubbed late-night Ursula Andress cable classic "The Sensuous Nurse")where a woman seduces a son, a father, AND a grandfather (the latter played by the late, great Ray Walston).

Would I have rented this intentionally? Well, no. But I have now wasted five minutes of my (admittedly pathetic)life reviewing it, so I guess I can't say its THAT bad.

"Blood Relations" follows a young woman (Lydie Denier) who accompanies her boyfriend to his rich family's estate in the dead of winter. Her encounters with his estranged father (Jan Rubes), a brain surgeon, become increasingly strange, and the family's dark secrets start to emerge.

While certainly not an accomplished masterwork, "Blood Relations" is an atmospheric psychological horror movie that has the temperament of a hard-edged Lifetime TV movie from the early-1990s. What works about it is that it boasts an atmospheric setting, a number of moody nighttime sequences, and a twisty plot that keeps the viewer in "what is going here?" territory.

The film mostly plays like a sordid V. C. Andrews-adjacent family drama until the final act, where it becomes a full-fledged horror movie. It does rely on a number of repetitive sequences that are portrayed ambiguously (as in they could be dreams, or they may in fact be real), which wears thin. That being said, the grim denouement packs enough of a punch that I found myself mildly applauding the film for going for the jugular. The performances here are middling at best, though Jan Rubes is effective as the dubious and sinister patriarch.

All in all, "Blood Relations" is a minor effort with a TV-movie feel, but it does get progressively darker as it moves toward its conclusion. It is a decent horror flick with enough idiosyncrasies and moodiness that warrant a viewing from genre fans. 6/10.

"Blood Relations" is a truly bizarre horror film.Stunningly beautiful Lydie Denier is being brought home by rich Kevin Hicks.She meets surgeon dad Jan Rubes and together with the son they plan to kill dad and get a huge inheritance.But soon we learn dad and son are quite mad...The film is occasionally truly creepy and weird-the performances are very good and believable.There is almost no gore,but the film definitely works as an atmospheric Gothic shocker.Overlooked classic and a must-see for horror fans!

You know you're about to watch a very unusual film when, during the first 10 or so minutes already, a passionate love-making sequences is montaged together with footage of an open brain-surgery. The weirdness continues when an adult son, with the persuasive help of his new girlfriend, decides to play a prank on the father by pretending to have slit his wrists and lay dead in a bloodied bathtub. Nice! Nothing says "dysfunctional family" like tasteless and downright shocking jokes, I guess!

Now, I have no idea how "Blood Relations" ended up on my must-see list, but there's definitely something oddly compelling about this late 80s Canadian horror/exploitation effort! Three generations of men (and a gardener) live together in their large and secluded family mansion. Grandfather lies nearly dead in his bedroom, the pervy father is a renowned brain surgeon who may or may not killed his wife to inherit her fortune, and the twenty-something son is plotting a scheme to eliminate his father and get his inheritance much quicker and all for himself. In the middle of all this is the stunningly beautiful Marie; - the son Thomas' girlfriend and accomplice, but she's playing her part of seductress very convincingly.

Admittedly there isn't a lot of horror in "Blood Relations", but this widely gets compensated by nudity, erotic atmosphere, and a whole lot of wicked strangeness. For example, I don't recall having seen many other films in which a girl gets down and dirty with the son, his father, and his grandfather! Well, what can you do when a dying old man's last wish is to strip naked and give kisses? The denouement is odd and largely unsatisfying. Mostly odd, though. To be honest, I guessed the ending right halfway through the movie, but then rapidly forgot the idea because it was just too silly and far-fetched. Not silly enough for this crew, apparently.