Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Blood’ on Hulu, A Horror Flick About a Mother’s Bleeding Love

When a movie starts with the dog starts barking at something off in the distance like Blood (now on Hulunow streaming on Hulu) does, that’s when you KNOW stuff is about to go down. The canine canary in the coal mine is, in fact, right. He portends a threat to the stability of a rickety family, one that will expose just how far a mother will go to protect her beloved children.

BLOOD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Newly single mother Jess (Michelle Monaghan) is moving her two young children into an old, rural home that runs in her family. It’s not her first choice due to the distance from her work at a hospital and the kids’ school, but she has few other options given the ruthlessness that her ex-husband Patrick (Skeet Ulrich) is bringing to their divorce. While courts usually favor mothers, he plans to hit her shaky mental state and past addiction to gain custody.

But Jess has a more immediate problem — first the family dog Pippen and then her son Owen begin acting funny after interacting with a dead tree on the edge of the property. After Pippin mauls Owen, Jess takes her son to her hospital where he begins to seize. In her vigilance, she catches Owen reaching for a blood bag being transfused into him … and watches it revive him. After more observation, she comes to the conclusion that he needs to drink blood to survive. Stealing some from work and substituting with animals proves only a temporary fix. Jess soon realizes she will have to be a clear source of life for Owen, and then must start to find him others to sustain.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: In terms of contemporary movies dealing with the complications of feeding a blood-hungry human, the closest parallel is Julia Ducournau’s sensational Raw (although this film is far less metal).

Performance Worth Watching: Let’s give it up for Michelle Monaghan! She is routinely the best part of any movie, whether the lead or just a supporting player, and Blood is certainly no different. She brings grit and groundedness to her aching matriarch which helps sustain the film as the plot goes in crazier directions.

Memorable Dialogue: “A mother would do anything to save her child,” Jess breathlessly explains to a captive audience. The context and the delivery both ensure this line lands as something far more potent than an empty truism.

Sex and Skin: This is a movie more interested in what’s coursing in the veins that run underneath the skin, so nothing of that variety here.

Our Take: One thing about director Brad Anderson … he’s always going to make a well-crafted movie! He’s an auteur in the original sense of the word, someone who works largely as a hired hand on genre work but elevates them with his steady directorial presence. You can feel the difference between being in the hands of someone like Anderson who knows his craft and can elevate a scene vs. a hack who just capitulates to all the studio notes. He’s a connoisseur of the great disappearing mid-budget movie for adults, and Blood does have that “oomph.” Unfortunately, the script by Will Honley plainly runs out of ideas about halfway through, and Anderson is left scrambling trying to paper over the narrative’s shortcomings. The film largely runs in circles for the last 45 minutes or so as the obvious conclusion lingers.

Our Call: STREAM IT! The craftsmanship of Brad Anderson and the dynamic performance of Michelle Monaghan elevate Blood. It’s a bit too long and underbaked as an idea, but the impressive elements of the film just barely outweigh its shortcomings. As far as horror flicks go that aren’t either franchise fare or sloppy schlock, this is a good option.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

Watch Blood on Hulu