BLOOD (2022)

Studio:     Vertical Entertainment
Director:    Brad Anderson
Writer:     Will Honley
Producer:  Gary Levinsohn, Billy Hines, Paris Kassidokostas-Latsis, Terry Dougas
Stars:     Michelle Monaghan, Skeet Ulrich, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, June B. Wilde, Skylar Morgan Jones

Review Score:

Summary:

A desperate mother secretly goes to extreme measures to save her young son after he develops a mysterious illness that makes him hungry for human blood.

Synopsis:     

Review:

“Blood” takes its unoriginal tagline out of a recycling bin to ask the question, how far would a mother go to save her child?  The answer?  Exactly as far as every other desperate parent in every other mediocre movie where saving a loved one becomes a formulaic focal point.

In the midst of a contentious custody battle following an acrimonious divorce, Jessica has a hard time holding her half of a fractured family together.  While her ex-husband Patrick enjoys their formerly happy home with his new wife and new baby, Jess moves into an old, remote farmhouse with their daughter Tyler and young son Owen.  As a recovering drug addict, Jess has a lot to prove if she wants to keep the children under her questionable care.  Proving her commitment to becoming a model parent turns into a Herculean challenge when a mysterious illness suddenly befalls Owen.

Owen’s dog Pippin acquires an unusual fascination for an ominous tree in a nearby forest.  One night, the tree’s lure draws the dog to perform a disappearing act.  When he returns with glowing eyes a few days later, Pippin unexpectedly mauls Owen, forcing Jess to beat the animal to death before rushing her son to the hospital.

Owen gradually recovers from the vicious attack, but recovery comes with a newfound appetite for human blood, which is the only thing keeping him from relapsing with convulsions and physical deterioration.  Discovering her son’s disturbing thirst, and knowing no medical professional would ever treat him with what he really needs, Jess takes on the responsibility of secretly satiating Owen’s hunger by securing a steady supply of blood, no matter what she has to do to get it.

Will she be willing to steal plasma packets from the hospital where she works?  Will she start killing rabbits to see if animal blood can be a substitute?  Will she slice open her own arm to provide the supply herself?  Will she kidnap a terminally ill patient for use as a perpetual blood pump, justifying her captivity as, well, the woman was going to die anyway?

The answers, of course, are yes, yes, yes, and yes.  What else would they be when a plotline that follows a predetermined pattern of escalation traffics chiefly in routine beats that can be seen coming from 2,000 miles away?

Hyperbolic haters relish opportunities to “well, actually” that something “isn’t a horror movie.”  According to them, Jordan Peele joints aren’t really horror films, they’re socially conscious commentaries.  “Silence of the Lambs” isn’t a horror movie either, it’s a psychological thriller.  I’ve also seen the slasher “Sick” (review here) decried as “not horror” even though it features masked men murdering people in a woodland cabin.

Although argumentative semantics like those are usually only worth no more than a dismissive groan, they’d be earned in “Blood’s” case.  “Blood” puts up an outward appearance of being vaguely vampire-related, what with Owen’s particular craving and some light prosthetics applied at the end to give him a hint of monstrous transformation.

Despite this, as well as the supernatural tree whose apparent curse never receives an explanation, “Blood” can only tangentially qualify as horror in a strictly secondary sense.  Owen’s condition is merely a device to motivate his mother’s desperation.  There’s one scene of him sucking on a dead woman’s throat, but really, he just has a disease that forces Jess to test the limits of her protective instincts.  Their situation otherwise isn’t different than any Lifetime-ready MOW where a parent fights to save a son or daughter from dying.

“Blood” focuses far more on soap opera melodrama.  Less a character and more of a scripted complication to get in the woman’s way, Patrick only exists to lob angry accusations at Jess, which both of them do plenty of while arguing over a conference room table in front of their lawyers.  Tender moments sprinkle in here and there, like when piano music accompanies Jess leaning contentedly in a doorframe to smile at the siblings playing Battleship together.  Several scenes show doctors spitting out medical jargon as they deliver diagnosis after diagnosis regarding Owen’s worrying health.  In procedural drama of a different kind, Jess has to deal with unexpected visits from police officers as well as Child Protective Services.  It’s all a lot of ordinary, ho-hum hullaballoo, far too much for padding out an overlong 105-minute runtime.

But “Blood” stars Michelle Monaghan, who retains a large enough following from her work in higher-profile features that people will see this movie simply because she is in it.  “Blood” is also directed by Brad Anderson, whom horror fans cut slack for also directing the cult favorite “Session 9.”  At some point, “Session 9’s” admirers will have to accept that it isn’t a great look for its director to still be riding on popularity that is now over two decades old.  It’s a lot like PR people continuing to tout Neil Marshall as the man who made “The Descent,” never mind that his lesser movies made in the 20 years since have overextended that line of credit.

Apparently though, Monaghan and Anderson still have enough fans, or the producers have enough friends, to stuff IMDb with suspiciously glowing reviews hailing “Blood” as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Honest people, on the other hand, will correctly tell you it’s closer to stale bread, serving up shriveled tropes and crumbs of flavorless intrigue.  What more would any reasonable person expect from a film that touts the tired tagline, “How far would you go to save your child?”

NOTE: There is a mid-credits scene.

Review Score: 45