Blood: An interesting twist on the Vampire trope is slightly derailed by an over concentration on Jess's (Michelle Monaghan) attempted recovery from addiction. Going through a messy divorce she brings her son, Owen (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) and daughter Tyler ( Skylar Morgan) to an isolated farmhouse to live. She loves the kids but obviously should never have gotten custody of them in the first place, her mad stares reminds me of Claire Danes in Homeland. Sympathy for the ex-husband is muted due to the fact that he has a baby by the much younger nanny. Anyway the kids go to a dried out pond where their dog senses something strange in dead tree. Later the dog runs off and when he returns is acting savagely and bites Owen. Owen has a bad reaction to the bite and in hospital Jess sees him drinking blood from his IV bag. It soon becomes clear that Owen will not survive without blood, being a nurse Jess can steal blood at first. Things turn ever darker as Jess goes to increasingly desperate lengths to source blood. Owen going from being a lovable if demanding kid to a beast doesn't happen overnight. The process is interesting to observe and is obviously demanding for Finlay but he puts in a tremendous performance. Skeet Ulrich is really just a cypher as the father. The woods, dried up pond and the farmhouse could also be seen as characters, each provides a battleground both psychic and physical which allows the narrative to unfold. Some grisly scenes but much of the horror is psychological. Could have been a better film but still well worth watching. Directed by Brad Anderson and written by Will Honley. 7/10.
