PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I am all about movies centering about witches, magic, demons, possession and what have you. Strangely, most of the time I find that these kinds of movies are not very good. More often than not, movies in said themes are made cheaply and rely on the genre itself to carry the film more than the story or dialogue. Such was not the case with the 2019 film, Blood Bound. I was surprised with this film… in more ways than one. Some surprises were pleasant and some not so much, but it was definitely not what I thought it was going to be. Regardless, it was a most uncomfortable viewing.
Blood Bound was written and directed by Richard LeMay (Dementia 13 2017 – read our review here) and stars Josh Brolin’s daughter, Eden Brolin (Beyond TV series), as Kerry, Eric Nelsen (A Walk Among the Tombstones 2014) as Sean, Boardwalk Empire’s Justiin A. Davis as Brian, Ross Wellinger (Long Distance TV series) as David, Prison Break’s Joseph Melendez as Raul, Rosa Arredondo (Still Alice 2014) as Sarita, Vanessa Rubio (The Hudson Tribes 2016) as Elicia, Karmine Alers (Naked As We Came 2012) as Valencia and Timothy Hughes (The Greatest Showman 2017) as the demon.
The story is a bit convoluted at times, but the gist is that every 25 years, a family of witches has to sacrifice four people – including a member of their own family – to keep their power and avoid having their line wiped out by a demon. To achieve this and keep their numbers going, they find drug addicts or people who harm themselves to spell, rape, impregnate and then kill. Heroin addicts Kerry, Sean and Brian fit their type perfectly. Kerry becomes pregnant, and as the people around her die, she decides that love may be the only way to survive.
Don’t let that last line fool you. This film is DARK, and I was really uncomfortable watching it. Blood Bound starts really slow, and I mean SLOW. This has the feel of a home invasion movie until you are about half an hour in. Then the witchcraft starts, and it speeds up a bit. From the rape scene onward, it was hard to watch. Brolin did a great job in this film. Just watching her character after the fact was heartbreaking. She is forced to face the family behind her rape over and over again throughout the pregnancy, which must have been excruciating, and her face showed it all. I was never sure if we were supposed to like the character of David because his actions and motivations are so back and forth that, even though he was technically the villain (although he didn’t commit the rape), it was like they were trying to make him a sympathetic villain. However, admittedly, I never felt that way toward the character.
The audio and video quality were outstanding, and the dialogue was realistic and interesting. Blood Bound wasn’t a bad movie by any means, and there were moments that really hit me in the feels. When I say I was really uncomfortable watching this, I mean that the situation was awful, not the film itself. The acting was good and story made me really sad. Overall, Blood Bound was a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours. I never found myself bored or wishing there was a way to skip ahead, and even though the beginning was slow and sometimes the story got muddy, when the action kicks in, it stayed interesting.
Blood Bound heads to VOD on January 15th.
