Aaron’s Blood is a horror film
about a father’s devotion to his offspring. Aaron (James Martinez) is trying to
care for his twelve year old son, Tate (Trevor Stovall), after the death of his
wife a year earlier. After a series of events, Tate begins acting strangely and
the film makes an awkward transition from drama to horror.
There
is the kernel of an interesting idea here. A recently widowed man is struggling
to care for his sick son. Just when he thinks the kid may be okay, strange
things begin happening around them. Now, he needs to act quickly or he will
lose his son forever. There is something scary in the relatability of that
scenario, but Aaron’s Blood never
figures out how to use it. Instead, there are plenty of plot-holes and silly
dialogue.
Additionally,
Aaron has a fear of losing Tate. We know he is extremely afraid of this because
of two lengthy dream sequences where Aaron is in a panic, unable to find his
son. This would be fine except that this anxiety never shows itself during
Aaron’s conversations with or about Tate.
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| Dad. I don't like this movie. |
The
film is short (about seventy-five minutes not including the end credits), so
there isn’t time to actually develop the characters before the plot kicks in.
The set-up, which features some potentially complex emotions, is blown through
in about fifteen minutes. Potentially important developments are rushed past,
taking any drama or mystery out of the story. Aaron is told that there is something
he can do to save his son, but the audience only finds out what that is toward
the end of the film. At first, I thought this was done to add suspense to the
story. But what he does is not exactly a surprise, so I do not understand why
it was done that way.
Aaron’s Blood has some
interesting ideas in it that could have helped it differ from other horror
films. However, the pacing and poor dialogue zap the film of any thrills. The
end result is one that is not really worth the seventy-five minutes it takes
to watch it.
Score
-Ben Pivoz