Though they have never truly faded from style, it would seem we are experiencing a full-blooded renaissance of vampire stories. Spurred on predominantly by television successes like What We Do in the Shadows (2019-) and Interview with the Vampire (2022), vampires are having a moment in the, well, moon. It seems only fitting to happen during the hundredth anniversary year for Nosferatu, the vampire movie that launched countless imitators, and one bloodthirsty lawsuit to boot. There is something indomitable about the vampire, a creature moldable to aesthetics and commentaries in ways irresistible to filmmakers. Everyone from Tony Scott and Kathryn Bigelow to Francis Ford Coppola and, soon enough, Robert Eggers have sunk their teeth into the monster. With such a dense C.V. it can be hard to imagine injecting new life into fiends, but Noah Segan’s zany and heartfelt Blood Relatives (2022) does so in droves.
Blood Relatives follows Francis (Noah Segan), a loner Jewish vampire who crisscrosses the American south looking for bad people he can suck dry. That relatively simple existence is blown up when Jane (Victoria Moroles) barrels into his life. Who is she? A 15-year-old daughter that Francis knew nothing about. Jane tracked Francis down because she wants to understand what exactly she is. She started asking questions after discovering an urge to eat raw meat and suck blood from the occasional raccoon. With Jane’s mother recently dead, Francis is her only family left. Francis wants to get rid of her to carry on his life as is. Jane won’t go without putting up a fight. The two embark on a fateful road trip full of bloodsucking escapades and more than a dose of self-discovery as each considers what the future could hold.
Part of what makes Blood Relatives pop is a screenplay, penned by Segan, that deftly weaves tones and genres together. Vampirism is foregrounded, but more as a means to unlock relationships and philosophical musings than to facilitate bloodletting. Francis has a softened Mad Max quality, far more prone to corny quips. He prefers solidarity, but only as a result of previous losses. Jane’s arrival presses both him and the film into a father-daughter road trip register. The vampiric aspects (sun sensitivity, the need to ask to enter a building, etc.) as logical hurdles. All the while, Segan’s script feasts on macabre humor. A stand-out scene finds Francis walking Jane through eating someone. It has all the awkwardness and best intentions of a parent giving their child “the talk.” This just happens to be about drinking blood.
Segan also manages to do the near-impossible: find a compelling new angle through which to frame vampirism. For Francis, this means linking the condition to his Judaism, specifically the horrific occult experiments carried out by Nazis during the Holocaust. Blood Relatives begins by sprinkling in old-school Yiddish jokes and phrases to signal Francis’s age and background. That turns poignant when Jane discovers a box of belongings in the car’s trunk. They lead Francis to tell her about how the Nazis turned him. Vampires and Judaism have had, to put it lightly, a complicated past. Racist and propaganda-dense ideas of blood libel and Bram Stoker’s own anti-Semitic leanings on display in Dracula have carried on the centuries-old convention of Jews as bloodthirsty monsters. Segan’s work here is remarkable. He uses a single scene to fully reframe the relationship between vampires and Judaism in storytelling.
Running through all of this is the delightful pair of performances that Segan and Moroles turn in. While Blood Relatives has memorable supporting bursts from a number of folks, it is effectively a two-hander for Segan and Moroles. Both actors have experience being stand-out members of an ensemble. It’s a joy to watch them step into perfectly-suited leading roles. Segan must embody Francis as he remembers how to be human. Moroles takes on the relative opposite, where Jane must learn how to operate as a half-vampire. The two seem just as comfortable trading quips, such as their tour-de-force comic first meeting where they fire back and forth about Francis’s car, as the meatier emotional beats that come with a resistant father accepting his paternal role. Not to mention, both of them make wonderfully convincing bloodsuckers..
Blood Relatives is another in the string of exceptional run of small-budget films from young or new directors that Shudder has put out this year. Segan’s film is in many ways the platonic ideal of what independent-minded horror can be. Blood Relatives builds from a killer idea that allows its creative teams to take risks, all while showcasing the inventiveness that comes from having to pull it off without blockbuster budgeting. You will laugh, jump in fright, and likely shed a tear watching Blood Relatives. What more could you ask for?
Blood Relatives will be available to stream on Shudder on November 22, 2022.
Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.