Search - In The Blood on DVD

Fate and Family

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 02/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""In the Blood"



Fate and Family



Amos Lassen



If you like thrillers Lou Peterson's "In the Blood" is the movie for you. Filmed in the style of the movies of the 1970's with vivid characters and melodrama, "In the Blood" deals with sexual confusion, fate and family. Cassidy Clark is a closeted athlete who has been ambivalent about his sexuality and this has prevented him from dealing with a hidden talent that he has inherited. He has no family except a sister; he is forced to face himself.

When Cassidy began his senior year of college two female students were murdered. His younger sister, Jessica, is a freshman on the campus where he goes to school and her resemblance to the two murdered co-eds worries her a great deal. Cassidy tries to comfort her and promises that he will let nothing happen to her. However, Cassidy has reasons to worry. He suffers from nosebleeds which are accompanied by flashes of images in his own mind. Of late the visions have become more real and include his sister covered in blood. What makes this even stranger is that these visions come to Cassidy when he is physically close to good-looking men. He begins to understand that there is something here that he has not come to terms with. When he has an unsuccessful tryst with a young hustler, he sees his most shocking image and the very next day another girl is murdered.

Jessica begins to date Michael, a friend of Cassidy's even though her brother does not approve of him. When Cassidy awakens one evening from a dream, he realizes that there is someone else in the room with him. It is his aunt and she tells him that it is possible that he has inherited the family gift of being able to see the future but only when having passionate sex. This causes Cassidy to embark on a journey of sexual discovery.

Writer-director Lou Peterson says "I wanted to tell a horror story grounded in the anxiety of the early gay experience" and that is just what he did. But this is not really a coming-out story as this is not where Cassidy is. He is not ready to come out as he has not yet accepted himself.

Driven by characters, the actors are large and strong. Their parts demand a lot and they manage to fulfill them admirably. As Peterson explorer both the fears and anxieties of coming out in a very atypical kind of movie, he realized

that emotional intensity on the screen had to be portrayed so he decided to highlight the psychological turmoil of a young man facing his sexuality. The themes of identity and discovery are the important elements in this first class film.

"

WONDERFUL

Arturo Castelan De Cruz | Mexico City | 03/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Just to let you know this is a wonderfully scripted film, which is a disturbing, homoerotic, and fantastic story of sexual knowledge. Coming out has never touched the trascendental until this film. Its narrative construction is almost flawless, and it's also beautiful to watch. I really liked the production design of this independent film, and certainly we have here a great director. I'm eagerly waiting for his next film!"

Pointless

Tony Philpott | Sydney, NSW Australia | 06/25/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"At the conclusion of this movie I wondered what had been the point of the last 80 minutes.Not terribly likeable characters and the conclusion was rushed. How the perpetrator of these crimes was caught is never really explained....or maybe it was and I had mentally switched off by this stage...

One of those DVD's I will give away rather than keep as I would never watch it a second time"

A promising script that needed revising

Renter | USA | 11/13/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In The Blood is about a college student whose attempts to uncover his sexuality become complicated by psychic visions about a campus killer. This movie is stylishly produced and much better-acted and scored than your average horror flick. Its promise as the next generation of horror is equaled only by the viewer's disappointment when the ending fails to deliver.



I wondered, while watching this, if this film had been shot during the writer's strike. That's the only reason I can think of that certain flaws could have gone uncorrected during the shooting process. There are a few dialogue cues that would make more sense in a high school context than college, for example; as if this script had started out as a story about high school students and then changed settings during the second draft.



The story itself has some pretty awesome possibilities. The concept of a family secret about hereditary mojo isn't new in horror, but the particular twist featured in this movie is something I've never seen before. The relationships, both family and romantic, are given enough complexity to be thoroughly watchable, which is why the lack of believable follow-through smarts so much at the end.



Bottom line, I was enjoying the story up until the final act. The last scene in particular was irritating beyond belief, but I refuse to let it ruin my experience of the entire movie. If the director has an alternate ending, I'd love to see that on a future DVD release, and I would pay full price for it. Otherwise, I'd recommend other users to catch this one free on late night cable, or buy it in the bargain bin, but don't pay full price for this one."