Family Blood

I just watched Family Blood on Netflix, knowing that it hadn't been favorably reviewed so my expectations were lowered. I'm still a bit surprised by the low rating on here (currently a 4.3), the film has a lot going for it, but also has it's share of issues. First off, the production values on this one are excellent, especially assuming this was likely a lower budgeted film. But a great looking and sound film does not make a film great. The story is pretty interesting, if nothing totally new. A mother of two teenagers who is trying to overcome a drug addiction becomes a vampire (via another vampire) and then begins to deal with her new addiction to blood. The blood addiction being compared to drugs is very heavy handed, but that's where this one redeems itself a bit. It focuses more on drama than horror, and so if you're looking for straight up horror this one is not for you, however if you like some drama in the mix, you might want to give it a shot. I enjoyed the slow pace, as I mentioned before, my expectations were that it was heavily focused on drama and so I didn't feel disappointed in the lack of horror on screen. However there are numerous unnecessary "jump" scares (that didn't make me jump) where they are just too forced. Also how many times are people going to call out a character's name? Holy! Half the dialogue in this was just saying the a name of a character, often multiple times over. The biggest issue to me though was the editing. I don't mean every cut, but most scene transitions were handled clumsily. It seemed like they needed to fill a gap in between scenes and transitions were awkward. Characters felt like they just appeared and disappeared as the the filmmakers needed at any moment during a scene. They'd wander down a hallway for no real reason and then they'd be somewhere else entirely a couple of shots later. It was strange.

Overall the story is decent, if maybe sometimes a bit slow, and it gets bogged down by some odd editing choices. The actors do a commendable job, and the cinematography is great. If you're looking for horror then skip it, if you are looking for something more about the drama with horror elements then it might be worth a shot.