The Reel Review
A recently divorced nurse and mother with a history of drug addiction must determine the lengths to which she will go to save her young son, when a mysterious infection turns him into a modern-day vampire, dependent on a constant supply of blood in order to stay alive, in this horror/thriller starring Michelle Monaghan (Mission Impossible – Fallout, Patriots Day, Gone Baby Gone).
Monaghan does an excellent job making her empathetic character both believable and relatable as the embattled mom, with young Finlay Wojtak-Hissong (Land) as her unfortunate, infected son and Skeet Ulrich (Scream, Scream VI) as her ex-husband. The production from director Brad Anderson (Transsiberian, The Machinist) is actually pretty solid. The problem is Blood‘s anemic screenplay from writer Will Honley (Escape Room: Tournament of Champions) – it is frustratingly bad.
Even with a runtime of an hour and 48 minutes, Blood is at least 30 minutes too long. The increasingly silly story completely falls apart in the third act, devolving into nonsensical ridiculousness that at times treads closer to unintended comedy than horror. And we never do learn what the hell is going on with that creepy tree. Blood is in dire need of a writing transfusion.
REEL FACTS
• Michelle Monaghan will next appear in the biopic Spinning Gold, about Casablanca records founder Neil Bogart.
• Skeet Ulrich will next appear in the disaster action film Supercell, about a storm chaser and his friends and family’s attempts to save him.
• Blood was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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