Aaron's Blood

When the hemophilic twelve year-old Tate (Trevor Stovall) is bullied at school, he breaks his nose and is sent to the hospital with internal hemorrhage. His father Aaron (James Martinez), who raises Tate alone since his mother died, is desperate since his son needed a transfusion. Despite his lack of faith, Aaron seeks out Father Kane (David Castellvi) that stays at the hospital chapel and they go to Tate's room where Father Kane prays for the boy. During the night, Tate recovers and improves his vision and senses. Further, he has no appetite and becomes sensitive to the sun. Soon Aaron learns that his son turned into a vampire and seeks for help to f ind the blood donor and to save Tate from his fate. Will he succeed?

"Aaron's Blood" is a decent and original low-budget vampire movie by the unknown Tommy Stovall. The story is indeed a father and son drama and fans of gore and horror will certainly be disappointed. The acting of the Latino cast is reasonable and the screenplay is not bad considering the budget, keeping the tension but with a quite disappointing conclusion. The use of nightmares to keep the tension is repetitive, but in general the film works on video. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

The story revolves around the dad and what he would do to save his son. Though, for the life of me I don't understand why they think it's a curse instead of a blessing. They could of made it more of a father and son coping with him becoming a vampire and what length the dad would go to protect his son. Instead, we get a crappy ending.

I'll say this for Aarons Blood, I've never seen anything like it. It's a very original film and took me by surprise.

It tells the story of a father and his efforts to reverse the vamperic virus that has infested his son. Can he save his boy before he becomes a full fledged blood sucker? Though the concept is interesting the movie is badly flawed in places. The cast are awful and incompetent, the direction is hit and miss and the ending is really quite weak.

I appreciate what the Aarons Blood creators were going for, I think they just made too many bad decisions along the way and the end result is a just passable effort.

The Good:

Very original

The Bad:

Poor cast

Bad finale

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Reason 543478934 why I should never be a father, I'd have staked him

Was really interested in the concept, which was a great and remarkably original one and that it was better received than a lot of films with similar budgets and from the same genre. Will admit that there was some apprehension, having seen a lot of wastes of good ideas. Either by really interesting ones executed amateurishly, or close to it, or original ones executed too ordinarily with predictability and blandness.

'Aaron's Blood' thankfully was not executed amateurishly. Nor was the originality on the most part. 'Aaron's Blood' could have been better, it is a patchy affair, but to me it was definitely watchable and had a good deal to like. There is definitely flesh here and 'Aaron's Blood' is certainly not bloodless, meaning that it didn't feel bland and there was a degree of substance. Would have liked more of both though, which would have happened if the execution was more consistent.

Beginning with the merits, 'Aaron's Blood' is a competent looking film. There is style and atmosphere in how it's shot and lit, without trying to do more than needed, the scenery is also atmospheric and it doesn't look sloppy or slipshod. The music fits well, is haunting and doesn't intrude or make things too obvious.

There is tension, suspense, creepiness and emotion in 'Aaron's Blood', with the relationships far from un-investable or dull. There is a real effort to approach any familiarity from a different angle and trying not to fall too much into predictable genre tropes, that was appreciated having seen so many films recently that failed badly at that. 'Aaron's Blood' starts off very well, the first half was engaging and maintained intrigue. The characters didn't bore or annoy me and the acting on the most part is quite reasonable.

David Castellvi though does have some pretty terrible moments, especially early on. The dialogue does have a tendency to be ropy and in desperate need of more flow. The nightmares initially were eerie and suspenseful but later came over as repetitive and not always necessary padding.

Although 'Aaron's Blood' started off very well and engaged for the first half, some of the second wasn't as tight in pace and as clear or focused in storytelling. The big reveal not only too abruptly introduced but is revealed too early, and on the whole anything to do with it does feel underdeveloped and jumpy and clarity becomes a bit muddled. One of the biggest faults is the ending, which came over as a rushed anti-climax.

In conclusion, watchable though could have been more. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This is a pretty original vampire film, and it was refreshing to see Latino characters.

The movie is less about becoming a vampire and more about a parents intense love for his son, who just so happens to have been turned into a vampire. Finding himself in this very unreal and unusual predicament, he endeavors to figure out how it happened and what to do next to help his beloved son, who is turning into a monster. There are few "action" scenes. It isn't your typical "horror/Vampire" movie. With that....you can tell if this movie might be up your alley or not.

The acting is relatively well done and the pace is steady, with a nice smooth rise in tension. This story was so original I just didn't know what to expect next, and that kept me interested and engaged.

The cinematography/camera use, lighting,score, and editing, were all done very well. Not only for an independently made movie, but for any movie made even with much higher budgets.

This movie isn't about gore and blood but does show some. The main difference here is that it is done to further the story and not to illicit shock or to gross out. It isn't overly done, and it's done well.

The make-up effects are simple also, but effective.

There are a few dream sequences that add to the tension, but honestly I felt like after one or two of them, they were used more to add "creepiness" and "scares" then to impart any value to the unfolding of the story.

The ending was a bit of a let down, but still worth the ride the film took me on.

I actually found myself reviewing this movie a lot more harshly then other independent films, but it is a testament to the QUALITY that I saw in it. It was a film I enjoyed for it's originality and subtleties and for it's smoothness and classiness.

I don't recommend this to people who are strict horror fans. But if you are like me, and do enjoy (good) horror/thrillers, and appreciate originality AND enjoy delving into the human condition.....You may want to give this movie a chance.

Im glad I did.