It's Day 279 of my One Movie a Day for 2023, and it's Day 6 of both my 31 Days of Hallowe'en challenge and the 31 Days of Horror Challenge that is being hosted by Nightmare on Film Street. And we can not forget the 100HorrorMoviesIn92Days challenge that I joined this year. Yeah, that's a crypt ton of horror movies. Trust me when I say, I see a total overdose of Hallmark Christmas movies in my near future just to get my brains back on track. I'm a big fan of horror movies, have been my whole life. But, the last two months have been near overload of gore; and there is literally the word Blood in my name.
Today's theme for my 31 Days of Hallowe'en was New Release Friday. I had planned the calendar with the intention of getting out to the cinema to see the new Exorcist movie, but I did not take in account this is Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend and things are closed in my area. So, I had to pivot a little. Instead, I ended up renting on demand the movie Blood Relatives. I realize this was released few months back on Shutter, but it was just released on Shaw on Demand.
Simple plot, a 100 year old vampire discovers he's got a teenaged daughter. After she shows up on this doorstep one night, informing him of both her existence and that her mother just died; he's got no other choice but to take her in. The two stumble through the next few months as they learn how to be a family.
I liked this. Then again, vampire movies are my happy place. It's not really a horror as much as a drama-comedy with blood. The vampire feedings are few and honestly, fairly tame compared to other movies. It tackles the issue of what actually makes a family. There is a scene where the teenaged girl is in a locked room with one of her dad's victims. This is clearly a nod to the Renfield character in Dracula, as he is in a mental hospital and keeps asking for his master. This victim has more of a connection to both our vampires than the two vampires have to each other at this point. She visits him under the pretense that he is her uncle, and you could actually argue that he is. If you're going by the vampirism bonding them all.
There is another little nod to Dracula by the fact they named half the characters in this movie after characters in the book.
The mini theme for the 31DayHorrorChallenge today is J-Horror. I went with the movie Ju-On. Probably one of the most popular in the genre. Yeah, I took the easy way on this one.
The plot centers around a haunted house and a cursed neighbourhood. Everyone who passes through the house ends up either dead or completely insane, and in turn causing the curse to reboot itself.
I've got mixed thoughts on this one. It's part ghost story, part haunted house story, part possession and vampiric. I went into this expecting a simple haunted house story, but found it to be layered in a few supernatural sub-genres. But, about halfway through I was like "oh vampire movie"; simply because the curse spreads like a virus draining the life out of them. There are also some scenes taken right out of folklore that places it firmly into the vampiric realm. We see one character having night terrors being caused by a vengeful spirit who steals her life.
It was good and I can see why it became as popular as it has. But, I think I would have liked it more if it hadn't been done in the editing style it was. There is no one timeline that you are following, but instead each character sometimes overlapping stories so much it can become confusing as to who you're following and how they play a role in the story.
We've got some overlap again today with both movies. As I have never seen either before, they both count towards the 100 Horror Movies in 92 Days challenge, and Blood Relatives is my One Movie a Day for 2023.
Don't forget to check the slab tomorrow, as I have a bit of a different style of post for tomorrow's challenges.
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