Director: Eric Steele
Release date: 2021
Contains spoilers
There is a saying, “It’s grim up north”, a stereotype attributed to JB Priestley. Whilst his observations were about the North East, this film embraces a deep-set grimness and centres it on the North West of England – Manchester to be precise. Also known as Bad Blood, the film’s story is grim, the performances purposefully dour and the city feels claustrophobically squalid. This is not a feel-good movie.
Starting with a police radio and a call out to something that sounded like an animal in distress, the coppers find a boy, Nathan (Lennon Leckey), above an animal (later identified as a dog), with blood round the kid’s mouth.
Marjory (Laura Montgomery Bennett) is a social worker and is struggling. One of her cases, a teenager called Curt, recently killed himself with a deliberate overdose. She should have seen it coming, she believes, and is beating herself up. Her boss comes in and, having observed that she refused the offer of counselling, asks her to take on Nathan. He was trying to eat a dog, he says, and assaulted one of the officers when they apprehended him. She is reluctant but, having spoken to him, decides to take his case.
They have no last name for him and he is not on the system. She takes him to sheltered accommodation but cannot get much out of him. Eventually he says he wasn’t eating the dog (ie the flesh) but he wanted the blood warm – it's no good cold. As the film progresses, they begin to develop a relationship in which he can open up to her that little bit more, eventually suggesting he’d hunt humans if he could and her initial thought is that he has a delusion.
She starts to read up on clinical vampirism, approaches some ‘real’ vampires for info and gets him to tell his story, which is about being caught in a battle (with swords) and hibernating to avoid those out to get him. Eventually she takes him to a doctor who finds, under his tongue, a hole that a barbed protuberance jabs out of. At this point she begins to realise that he is telling the truth, has developed a bond with him and seems all too willing to help him.
The story is fairly simple, it also feels a little too lax around her motivations and, despite losing her previous ward, I felt her willingness to help Nathan demanded too much of a suspension of disbelief from the viewer. The issue wasn’t the performance, I think the character and narrative didn’t develop the attachment as strongly as they might have to allow us to accept that she would act the way she does. The film is, as I said at the head, dour but, I think, purposefully so. That said you are not going to watch this for its upbeat outlook. 5 out of 10 (and there is possibly a point for the stinger).
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
Contains spoilers
There is a saying, “It’s grim up north”, a stereotype attributed to JB Priestley. Whilst his observations were about the North East, this film embraces a deep-set grimness and centres it on the North West of England – Manchester to be precise. Also known as Bad Blood, the film’s story is grim, the performances purposefully dour and the city feels claustrophobically squalid. This is not a feel-good movie.
Starting with a police radio and a call out to something that sounded like an animal in distress, the coppers find a boy, Nathan (Lennon Leckey), above an animal (later identified as a dog), with blood round the kid’s mouth.
 |
| Laura Montgomery Bennett as Marjory |
Marjory (Laura Montgomery Bennett) is a social worker and is struggling. One of her cases, a teenager called Curt, recently killed himself with a deliberate overdose. She should have seen it coming, she believes, and is beating herself up. Her boss comes in and, having observed that she refused the offer of counselling, asks her to take on Nathan. He was trying to eat a dog, he says, and assaulted one of the officers when they apprehended him. She is reluctant but, having spoken to him, decides to take his case.
 |
| Lennon Leckey as Nathan |
They have no last name for him and he is not on the system. She takes him to sheltered accommodation but cannot get much out of him. Eventually he says he wasn’t eating the dog (ie the flesh) but he wanted the blood warm – it's no good cold. As the film progresses, they begin to develop a relationship in which he can open up to her that little bit more, eventually suggesting he’d hunt humans if he could and her initial thought is that he has a delusion.
 |
| the stinger |
She starts to read up on clinical vampirism, approaches some ‘real’ vampires for info and gets him to tell his story, which is about being caught in a battle (with swords) and hibernating to avoid those out to get him. Eventually she takes him to a doctor who finds, under his tongue, a hole that a barbed protuberance jabs out of. At this point she begins to realise that he is telling the truth, has developed a bond with him and seems all too willing to help him.
 |
| things get out of hand |
The story is fairly simple, it also feels a little too lax around her motivations and, despite losing her previous ward, I felt her willingness to help Nathan demanded too much of a suspension of disbelief from the viewer. The issue wasn’t the performance, I think the character and narrative didn’t develop the attachment as strongly as they might have to allow us to accept that she would act the way she does. The film is, as I said at the head, dour but, I think, purposefully so. That said you are not going to watch this for its upbeat outlook. 5 out of 10 (and there is possibly a point for the stinger).
The imdb page is here.
On Demand @ Amazon US
On Demand @ Amazon UK
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