Blood Relatives

This is the Jewish Vampire Dad family movie you didn't know you needed. It's a film with a lot of heart, laughs, a healthy splattering of gore, and one ultimate truth; there's nothing more transformational than becoming a Dad.

Noah Segan's directorial debut does what his buddy Rian Johnson's movie "Looper" did with Time Travel. He manages to do something refreshingly new in a very well worn genre.

Blood Relatives is a remarkably charming film that had me at "Oy Vey" and never let go.

The casting is perfect. Victoria Moroles as Jane is delightful and there is a particularly brilliant turn by Josh Ruben as a "familiar" character.

I've watched this twice and hope the universe Segan has created has room for more stories.

IN A NUTSHELL: A vampire's loner lifestyle is thrown into disarray when a teenager shows up claiming to be his daughter, and she's got the fangs to prove it. On a road trip across America's blacktops, they decide how to sink their teeth into family life.

The movie is both written and directed by Noah Segan. But wait, he also stars in it! That always impresses me, especially for a first-time director! I'm curious to see what else he has to say.

THINGS I LIKED: This unconventional road-trip flick features two vampires played by Noah Segan and Victoria Moroles.

Yiddish words like Mensch, "oy vay", "putz", and "schlep" are used.

It looked like the scenes were actually filmed on location, rather than on a green screen, which is always refreshing.

There is some humor to make the movie more playful and fun.

We get to watch an ancient vampire transition into a dad.

Some moral territory is covered as the vampires discuss the rights and wrongs of vampire life.

The film makes a statement on how we all just want to belong and know where we came from.

The filming and lighting were good, especially considering so many scenes took place at night.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: It's a slow burn with a "meh" payoff.

Not all of the humor lands.

Not that much really "happens" to propel the movie into more than just a road trip film.

Fans of horror will be disappointed that there isn't more action.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Lots of blood and some gore Profanity, including F-bombs Crude language and conversations

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Not well adapted to vampire movies, batting around in the night, even though i am a night nurse of proffesion and most of the preference of a vampire is there, yes, ive got some pfangish molars and love beef tartar ive yet to become draculized...

but this was a kinda original take on the pestilence, very nicely set and gone, in the hands of noah segan , with witts and fun without exhagerating the topic of bloodthirst.

Its a small casted and well acted dark comedy about two strangers that meet in the middle of the night due to the need of darkness, a girl and a man, the man who sowed a seed 15 years ago in the heat of the dark, and the girl who grew out of this seed to become a beautyful daughter of his. But blending into blood relatives has its troubles, so here we go...

thanks to a short runtime, youll get flabbergasted when its over, i did at least, therefore a recommend from the grumpy old man. It has great sets, loads of gadgets and sttuff, its neatly camerahandled( the scene with the train in the background is mesmerizing) and its well edited. And its not horror at all, just comedy.

I mean, for a directorial debut it's not that bad. But to be honest, it's kinda boring. I'm not an expert at drama, so I can't really pinpoint what made it boring. Maybe the lack of music? Maybe the lack of background story on the main character, that made the audience having a hard time to care about him? I don't know. I'm not the right person to analyze a drama movie. But I do know that a good drama is the one which doesn't make you wanna fast forward through it. And I did got tempted a few times while watching this. I don't wanna be a jerk, so I'm giving it 5 stars. But I don't recommend this movie to anyone.

First off regardless of a films subject or story, anything that's written, directed and starting the same person virtually never works out well. So why 'Blood Relatives' has a 96% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, is beyond me... especially after watching the film.

Now lets talk about 'Blood Relatives'. Its largely absent of both foley and diegetic sounds, mainly consisting of just 1-on-1 dialog and the occasional Yiddish(or punk rock) ditty. Which from my perspective, makes the film just feel hollow. The acting itself and cinematography weren't bad at all, and I did appreciate the on location filming over a studio/green-screen production.

However, 'Blood Relatives' ultimately failed to deliver any meaningful substance, I'd call it neither a comedy nor horror. And again, why it has one of the highest Tomato ratings, with 22 Fresh critic reviews, is beyond me. What I can tell you though, is the theme seems to be founded in a mutual consensus of finding the film "charming". The adjective shows up in almost all critic review synopsis'. IMHO that's just a passive-aggressive way of saying it was bad!