Other than maybe kaiju, vampires are hands down my favorite movie monsters, and one of the reasons I love them so much is because they make for some really unique films. Sure, there are plenty of by-the-numbers vampire flicks that just rehash the same tropes we’ve seen a million times before, but there are also some really unique ones that reimagine the subgenre in new and refreshing ways. For example, there’s Mario Bava’s witch/vampire mashup Black Sunday and Guillermo del Toro’s debut feature Cronos, and if the trailer is any indication, we’ll be adding a new title to that list in about a month: Blood. Here’s what the film is about:
After her marriage breaks up, Jess moves her two children back to her childhood home where their lives quickly deteriorate into terror after the family dog bites her son. Giving him a horrific infection, Jess’s morals are tested when the only cure to keep her son alive proves deadly.
On the surface, that may sound more like a zombie story, but the trailer makes it clear that Blood stands firmly within the vampire subgenre. Most notably, the kid’s infection makes him drink blood, and some of the final moments of the trailer show him biting someone on the neck. That’s pretty much the definition of vampirism, so even though this is far from a stereotypical Dracula rip-off, it’s definitely a vampire movie.
And for my money, its refreshing take on the subgenre is what makes this film so intriguing. In fact, it seems like Blood focuses more on the boy’s mother than on the bloodsucking kid himself, and it just uses its vampiric premise to set up its real monster, a woman who will commit unspeakable crimes to help her son. I don’t know about you, but I find that concept absolutely fascinating, so as a big fan of both vampires and deep moral quandaries, I can’t wait to see this movie.
Blood is currently set to be released on January 27.