Family Blood (2018)

Was drawn into seeing 'Family Blood' with a cool poster/cover, an slightly intriguing but very derivative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for horror. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive. 'Family Blood' is sadly however yet another film seen recently, hence some reiteration because the exact same strengths and flaws those films are present here, that to me was incredibly disappointing considering its potential which it doesn't do anywhere near enough with. As a film it's weak, with a plethora of problems (huge ones too) and doesn't do enough with its potential, which was hardly small. There is very little good about itLets start with the positives. The scenery is atmospheric and spooky.Although most of it looks schlocky, some of the shots look decent. The start intrigues somewhat, shame the rest of the film completely goes downhill and never recovers.Unfortunately, the story does feel paper thin, disjointed and over-stretched and some of it feels vague, under-explained and ridiculous in the last third where the film especially became duller, more predictable, more senseless and less scary. Too many characters are too sketchy and with nowhere near enough to make one want to endear to them. Their annoying and illogical decision making and behaviours frustrates.Making the film feel bland and forgettable with not enough heart put into it. The effects are ropy at best, the sound quality is obvious and utilised cheaply (being too loud in the build ups and people's reactions) and it's best not mentioning the uniformly lumbering and histrionic acting. Dialogue can be stilted and rambling, with lots of clichés and no depth whatsoever, while the pace goes to a standstill very quickly and drags on forever with very little going on worth caring about, never recovering. Found too many the supposedly shocking moments not surprising or scary and the supposedly creepy atmosphere dreary, due to the excessive obviousness, a lot of dumb and vague moments and explanations and the lack of tension and suspense. Would not have minded the lack of originality (the film is extremely derivative and in a dumbed and watered down way) if the story and atmosphere were at least alright in execution, in reality they were both dreadfully done. Not to mention a whole novel's worth of inconsistencies and continuity errors and a structure so aimless and confused it renders some of the film incoherent.There are a good deal of underdeveloped plot elements and often nonsensical and confusing character motivations, while too many of the things to make you jump or shocked are far from creative or scary and are pretty tame. The ending is not a surprise or interesting with it being too easily foreseeable that suspense is completely dissipated.There is not enough threat here and what there is of it tends to be used poorly, it is completely unimaginative, very repetitive and more odd than creepy, completely failing to show any sense of horror and resorting to cheap typical horror tropes. Some badly sagging momentum too. The direction is leaden, inexperience seems to be all over the film, and the music doesn't really fit. There is no creativity or anything shocking.In summation, mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

SPOILER: Family Blood: Elle (Vinessa Shaw) is a recovering addict, she moves to a new city with her children Kyle (Colin Ford) and Amy (Eloise Lushina). At an Addicts Anonymous Meeting she meets up with Christopher (James Ransone) who it turns out is a vampire. To "save" Elle from her traumas, Christopher turns her. Her children along with Kyle's school friend Meegan (Ajiona Alexus) presume Elle has started using pills again. We then get to observe her dark descent.Elle is unable to hold down food, even when she tries to take pills she immediately regurgitates them.Desperate she roams the night and eventually kills and exsanguinates a cat, later moving on to the pet's owner. These vampires don't fear crucifixes or garlic and prove rather hard to kill. They ask if they can come in, but they're just being (sarcastically) polite, they don't need an invitation.Some convincing acting by Shaw, Ford and Alexus, good vampire attack scenes but the pace is uneven. Too much dreariness between the action sequences, at times I felt it was like Angela's Ashes - with Vampires. 6/10. On Netflix.

The premise is good, but this movie takes a long time to go nowhere. I fast forwarded and it was still too slow. Just people looking at each other in judgement after they do something awkward or weird happens. It is more of a sad drama than a horror movie.

The drug addicted Ellie (Vinessa Shaw) is trying to stay clean, attending meetings of a support group for persons who are struggling with drug addiction. She has just recovered the custody of her teenage son Kyle (Colin Ford) and daughter Amy (Eloise Lushina) and moved to a new city with a job got by a professor friend of her. However her second chance in life is affected by her addiction and Ellie uses pills again in a lonely park during the night. But her new acquaintance in the group Christopher (James Ransone) is indeed a vampire and he decides to turn Ellie into one to save her from the drugs. Soon Kyle and Amy see the change of behavior of their mother while Ellie discovers that she is a vampire. What will happen to Ellie and her children?"Family Blood" is a film lost between drama and horror; consequently does not work well. The beginning of the screenplay is a complete mess and the characters are not well developed. Cristopher´s motive to turn Ellie into a vampire is poor and unconvincing. The gore conclusion is terrible. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): Not Available