Blood (2023) by Brad Anderson

Director: Brad Anderson

Year: 2023

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Psychological

Plot:

After moving to a remote farmhouse, a woman and her family try to come to terms with her son who has come under a strange affliction that forces him to consume human blood to survive after an animal bite and becomes conflicted about whether to honor the situation to save her family.

Review:

Overall, this was a somewhat troubling genre effort without much to like about it. Among the only likable features here is the engaging setup involving a woman's quest to protect her family. Relying on the idea of her protective nature bringing about the inability to recognize his worsening and blatantly obvious condition due to the love she has trying to ensure her family stays together, it generates some highly enjoyable scenes as this goes along with the change taking place while she does her best to keep it from falling apart. Coupled with a generally competent and engaging series of technical marks throughout here with the style matching everything else intently and it scores nicely in that regard.

That, though, doesn't help to overcome the big issues here. The main drawback with this one is the general familiarity with the storyline bringing about some self-explanatory choices without doing anything different with them. With a woman so blinded by her family that it becomes frustrating waiting for her to accept the plainly obvious, this tends to become quite plodding as a paper-thin storyline spreading this family-centered piece that goes on and on everyone the point of relevance. It could've done this a lot faster and done something differently so it all just becomes quite troublesome waiting for this to finish while its drama-focused pacing means a lack of action for the most part. These factors all manage to bring this one down.

Overview: **.5/5

A solid enough but problematic genre effort, there's enough to like here that it's a watchable enough feature while still being let down more by the flaws that crop up which keep it down. Those that appreciate this kind of genre effort or are fans of the creative crew will be the most likely targets here while most others that don't enjoy either of those factors should heed caution.