Blood

“Blood” is an excellent take on the vampire tale and is one helluva fun watch.

Exploring the depths to which a mother will go to save her son, Brad Anderson’s “Blood” is a disturbingly excellent study of addiction and family trauma wrapped up in a vampire story.

Jess (Michelle Monaghan) is a nurse and recovering addict attempting to get her life together while going through a difficult divorce from Patrick (Skeet Ulrich). She, along with her children Tyler (Skylar Morgan Jones) and Owen (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong), move to the remote farmhouse she grew up in hopes that it will be the catalyst for a fresh start.

Since moving in, the family dog keeps noticing something the others cannot. When Tyler and Owen stumble upon a dried-up pond they hoped to fish in, the dog immediately tries to make it away across the mud to get to a creepy tree standing in the middle. Luckily the kids are able to pull him back to safety.

A short time later, the dog runs off and is gone for a few days, but when it finally returns, its eyes glow unnaturally. It quickly attacks Owen, biting his legs and then moving to his neck. When Jess eventually can eliminate the threat to her son, Owen lies on the ground profusely, bleeding from his neck and on the verge of death.

Tyler got help in time for her brother and now Owen is in the hospital. The doctors are doing all they can, but the young man continues to deteriorate – that is, until he’s left alone and starts sucking on a bag of O-Negative blood like a Capri Sun. The blood revitalizes the boy, and all looks well until he needs more. Jess knows this isn’t normal and must get her son home as quickly as possible.

Instead of stocking the basement fridge with beer, Jess uses her position as a nurse to stock it will bags of blood she steals from the hospital. But when Owen goes on an O-Negative bender and Jess finds him surrounded by empty bags, she knows they have to find an alternative source which leads first to small animals, but she quickly realizes she must go for bigger game.

As Owen’s bloodlust grows and begins to spiral out of control, Jess finds herself faced with an impossible choice and must finally answer the question of how far she will go to save her son – even if that means killing the monster inside him.

I absolutely adored this movie. People might pick things apart left and right, but for pure entertainment, value is excellent. Anderson, working from a script from Will Honley, crafted a cool vampire tale that is fun and disturbing and left me wanting more at every turn.

Monaghan is terrific as Jess and delivers a powerful and raw performance. Her ability to make you feel compassion for a character that should have none at times is a testament to her acting skill.

As much as I loved Monaghan, Wojtak-Hissong stole the show for me. The young actor gives a performance that makes your skin crawl and breaks your heart at the same time and the way he effortlessly transitions between the two is truly wonderful to watch.

“Blood” is an excellent take on the vampire tale and is one helluva fun watch. Monaghan and Wojtak-Hissong give performances that shouldn’t be missed.