THE STORY – Filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady) is making a documentary about reconnecting with her estranged mother, Sam (Alanna Ubach) after a long decade of distance. A distance that began at the age of 13, when authorities forcibly removed her from their home due to her mother’s struggles with addiction. Now, Sam has reached out. She’s clean. She terribly wants to be back in Emily’s life. With her cinematographer Danny (E. J. Bonilla) by her side, Emily heads to her hometown of Las Cruces, New Mexico, braced for anything that might come with the reopening of old wounds. They meet at Sam’s home. She seems to be doing better. She has so much to share. The following day, she disappears without a trace, and Emily and Danny soon learn that Las Cruces has become a place where vulnerable people regularly go missing. They desperately try to piece together a mounting multitude of disturbing clues before it may be too late.
THE CAST – E. J. Bonilla, Krisha Fairchild, Brittany O’Grady & Alana Ubach
THE TEAM – Pedro Kos (Director) & Mallory Westfall (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 89 Minutes
It’s fitting that award-winning documentary filmmaker Pedro Kos would make his foray into narrative filmmaking with a found footage horror film that follows a young filmmaker as she makes a documentary about reconnecting with her estranged mother. “In Our Blood,” premiering at the Fantasia International Film Festival, is a deeply emotional story that is only made more profound in its documentary style. Everything is shot on a handheld camera, which makes the narrative feel more real and intimate. On the one hand, it feels like an indie doc, but it evolves into something much more sinister, as Kos uses the horror genre to highlight the epidemic of drugs and homelessness. Much like what the director discusses in the Netflix documentary short, “Lead Me Home,” here, instead of focusing on the West Coast of the US, “In Our Blood” travels to Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Emily (Brittany O’Grady) hasn’t seen her mother, Sam (Alanna Ubach), since she was forcibly removed from her care when she was 13. Her mother’s struggles with addiction are what tore their relationship apart. Years later, Sam reaches out and invites Emily to Thanksgiving. She says she’s clean now and hopes to build a relationship with her daughter. When Emily and her cameraman, Danny (E. J. Bonilla), arrive at Sam’s home in Las Cruces, things really do seem to have turned around. However, as they begin to interview Sam, it becomes clear that Emily still harbors a lot of pain from what happened in childhood. Following this reunion, Sam disappears without a trace, and Emily and Danny soon find themselves in a situation that goes beyond just making a movie. Testing this partnership, the duo sometimes witness strange events and puts themselves in scary situations in pursuit of Sam, whose disappearance may be tied to something much darker.
What’s remarkable about “In Our Blood” is its unparalleled authenticity. This is a must for all found-footage horror films, but this is felt to a stronger degree here by casting several non-actors who are part of Las Cruces’s homeless community. Emily and Danny meet and interview various people in Sam’s life to try to put pieces of this puzzle together. Many of those people happen to be housed at a clinic for people struggling with mental health issues and/or addiction. Addiction is the biggest plot point here, and incorporating real people who struggle with it not only brings awareness but also makes the piece more profound. For many, including Danny, the world of drugs and gangs is often something you can’t avoid. It’s not always a choice, and it’s a life that’s very difficult to get out of. With the disappearance of Sam, Emily, and Danny come to learn that Las Cruces is a place where many vulnerable people go missing. The violence that manifests due to homelessness and drugs can lead to many vulnerable people losing their lives, something that the powers that be turn a blind eye to.
In the end, “In Our Blood” takes a wild swing that’s very unexpected but works perfectly for a horror feature. The film’s ending introduces a twist that adds another layer to its commentary on how those with addiction are treated and viewed by society. This twist, which I won’t spoil here, is a bold narrative choice that may divide audiences but undeniably adds to the film’s horror elements. The best kind of horror movies are ones that craft their narrative with real-world frights, and “In Our Blood” does this by emphasizing the bleak, disgusting, and terrifying reality of how our most vulnerable are left abandoned.
