Seann William Scott is a long way from Stifler in the psycho parenthood thriller Bloodline
Film Reviews Movie Review
Pregnancy as body horror is a familiar subgenre, but the new Blumhouse thriller Bloodline takes that idea a step further by presenting parenthood as a corruptively violent force, transforming a new mother or father from the inside out. The need to protect isn’t that far off from the need to destroy, and director Henry Jacobson’s gory thriller is initially quite effective when it complements the lies families tell each other with arcs of jugular blood.
Seann William Scott has been cast against type as Evan Cole, a seemingly normal high school counselor who wears corduroy blazers and lends out books to his students. He’s mostly well-liked, even nicknamed Mr. C by high school senior Chris (Raymond Alexander Cham Jr.), whom Evan has counseled for years. At home, it’s ostensibly a joyous time for Evan and his wife, Lauren (Mariela Garriga), who is pregnant with their first child. But when their son, Andrew, is born, the routines of parenthood almost immediately take a toll.
Lauren has trouble bonding with and breastfeeding Andrew, and she soon spirals into post-partum depression. The baby’s endless crying keeps Evan up, distracting him during his counseling sessions. And when his mother, Marie (a perfectly cast Dale Dickey), moves in to help care for her grandson, her presence drives a wedge between Evan and Lauren—and sparks memories in Evan of sharp knives and spurts of blood, and a desire to kill. “I will never hurt you, I will never judge you, and I will never leave you,” Evan tells his son. But is that a promise or a threat?
First-time director Jacobson and co-writers Avra Fox-Lerner and Will Honley start Bloodline with an homage to Psycho—a jarring shower murder, and of a blond woman, no less!—and then jump backwards to introduce Evan and Lauren. The script is sparse but deliberate, juxtaposing who Evan is with people he loves compared with those he’s hunting. The language he uses during counseling sessions gets a sinister spin when he repeats it during attacks (“Please describe to me the feelings and sensations you experience,” he says to a victim he’s already stabbed once), and Scott nails that duality, playing Evan as a tightly wound man mostly going through the motions of normalcy. There are no glimmers of Stifler in this performance: The actor deviates between flashing a bland smile and setting his jaw in a hard stare to show us the two sides of Evan. It’s not particularly creative, but it works for the character.
Absent Scott’s signature goofiness, Bloodline possesses a nasty sense of humor, derived primarily from the relationship between Evan and Marie. Cinematographer Isaac Bauman composes certain shots first with Evan and then recreates them with Marie to demonstrate their familial bond: mother and son positioned similarly in their home and in the hospital, displaying an innate similarity through body language. Split diopter shots emphasize the separation of Lauren from their mother-son relationship, though sometimes the film gets too literal in its Oedipal complex. (Who was asking for an open-mouthed kiss between Scott and Dickey?) Brisk editing by Nigel Galt (Eyes Wide Shut), accompanied by Trevor Gureckis’ synth-heavy, Cliff Martinez-like score, communicates the monotonous experience of parenting an infant: the glow of the baby monitor in the middle of the night, the sound of the sticky fasteners on diapers, the cacophony of screams.
But the film can’t quite decide how risky it wants to get, which feels like maybe it doesn’t trust its audience. Some elements are garishly over-the-top: Barely five minutes after meeting Lauren, we’re eye-level with her cleanly shaved vagina as she gives birth to a bloody, mucus-covered Andrew. In another scene, a character dressed like a ’70s porn stereotype speaks glowingly of statutory rape and incest. Such moments feel like Bloodline reveling in its R rating, particularly when it comes to Lauren and her nude body. Yet the film also steps back from villainizing Evan’s behavior, primarily setting up situations in which his murders are justified. Bloodline itself never wonders if Evan is a bad person, and the movie feels stifled by that lack of self-awareness.
When Bloodline sticks to Evan and Marie, its themes of family and responsibility are derivative but stylishly communicated, through a propulsive score, quick cuts, and artistic sprays of blood. A third-act turn that isn’t supported sufficiently by preceding character development derails the rhythm. The final 15 or so minutes force the film to grapple too generally with the question of what children inherit from their parents, shifting the story from an exploration of one man’s distorted idea of fatherhood into something broader. Before that, though, Bloodline gives its characters just enough interiority to probe at the idea that parenthood’s combination of “love and total panic at the same time,” as Lauren says, can push someone toward murderous madness.
25 Comments
“a ‘70s porn stereotype speaks glowingly of statutory rape and incest”But enough about GOP Rep Steve King.
Wouldn’t a 70s porn stereotype be in favor of racial mixing and thus more progressive than Steve King?
I actually like to imagine every character Seann William Scott plays to be a different alternate universe Stifler. So Goon gave us a Stifler who played hockey during the lacrosse off-season and took a puck to the forehead that caused mild brain damage but made him a nicer person. This movie, however, shows us a Stifler whose childhood trauma has come back to haunt him despite his efforts to put his wild past behind him and become a better person. Meanwhile, his kother got deep into drugs and alcohol and now looks like a different person entirely. My favorite was Southland Tales, which had two Stiflers.
Road Trip: Stifler goes to collegeThe Rundown: Stifler goes to the jungleDude, Where’s My Car?: Stifler takes a lot of drugs and falls in love with KelsoEvolution: same Stifler, a little olderRole Models: see Evolution
You get it.
Stark Raving Mad: [no one has seen this, only dismissed it at Blockbuster and went with watching Rat Race again]
It’s Always Sunny: Mac StiflerShut up, science bitch!
Episode VI: Return Of The Stifler
I have signed on fully to your Stiflerverse idea.
I can’t imagine Jennifer Coolidge inflicting any trauma on a young Stifler, unless in your universe he was raised by his deadbeat dad instead.
Banging Finch on the pool table during his graduation party, and interrupting lord knows how many other of her encounters, wouldn’t potentially lead to relationship issues (like an open mouth kiss with his mom)?
All I can imagine is Jennifer Coolidge inflicting trauma:
Country Mac was brilliant
Well, this spinoff feature of the Netflix Kyle Chander/Ben Mendelsohn series went in a weird direction…
True—I understand actors sometimes play different characters in different movies.
Yeah, it’s a little weird to continuously bring up a 20-year-old role for this dude.
And sometimes they don’t. See, for example, Katherine Heigl.
Bloodline itself never wonders if Evan is a bad person, and the movie feels stifled by that lack of self-awareness.HEYYO!
I truly believe Stifler could be a killer, ever since that prostate milking in “Road Trip” he hasn’t been the same.
… …Shitbrick?
I wonder if it’s liberating naming your project Bloodline, knowing there are dozens of other movies named the same. It does well, great! If it flops, it can get lost in web searches with all the other Bloodline’s that have come before it. Must be a yearly head-stretcher at the copyright office, and the various ‘Hollywood’ guilds and unions.
Prediction: It turns out Scott’s father was abusive and the mother killed him for it.
“A long way from Stifler” has to be a step in the right direction.
i want him to play booster gold. i honestly really like him and will probably see this.
Who’s that riding in the sun?
Who’s the man with the itchy gun?
Who’s the man who kills for fun?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
He sleeps with a gun
but he loves his son
Killed his wife ‘cos she weighed a ton.
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
A little touched or so we’re told
Killed his wife ‘cos she had a cold
Might as well she was gettin’ old
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
He’s quick with a gun
And his job ain’t done.
Killed his wife by twenty-one,
Psycho Dad!
Who’s that riding in the sleigh?
Who’s that firing along the way?
Who’s roughing up bums on Christmas day?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad
Who’s the tall, dark stranger there.
The one with the gun and the icy stare.
The one with the scalp of his ex-wife’s hair!
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad!
Who’s that riding across the plain?
Who’s lost count of the wives he’s slain?
Who’s the man who’s plumb insane?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad