Family Blood: Ending Explained

Family Blood: Ending Explained By Deffinition

Family Blood is a 2018 Blumhouse Horror Film. The direct to Netflix movie centres around a single mother dealing with her transformation into a vampire.

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Avoiding the usual Jump-Scare centric motif that Blumhouse are known for, this movie thematically tries to study addiction under a horror premise.

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Throughout this video, I will be discussing the film’s plot and ending as well as some of the main conceptual ideas that it tries to tackle.

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There will be huge spoilers throughout this video so make sure you avoid this for now if you are looking to check out the film with fresh eyes.

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With that out the way, I’m Deffinition and this is my ending explanation of Family Blood.

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The Prologue

The film opens on Christopher, the movie’s main antagonist and vampire, slaughtering a family. Christopher attempts to control his addiction and let Kristen, the daughter escape but when his bloodlust gets the better of him he too adds her to the body count.

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From here we join Ellie and her family. Ellie is a recovering drug addict that once was heavily under the influence of an unnamed pill. This addiction ruined her family and has led to her children having a troubled childhood that means they find it difficult fitting in and conforming to the rules.

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During an addict’s meeting, Ellie is joined by Christopher. He fits in well because like the addicts, his efforts to control his vampirism often fail and his demons regularly get the better of him. We see this come to fruition when he kills a drug dealer and forces, Ellie, to become a monster like he is.

Ellie Becomes A Vampire

After this Ellie begins to exhibit signs that her body is transforming into a creature of the night. She rapidly heals from wounds and is unable to stomach anything other than blood. Her addiction is shown to grow monstrously when she digs through trash in order to find a blood-soaked napkin to eat and after this encounter, Christopher informs her that there is nothing she can do to halt the change.

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Her bloodlust comes to a head when she murders a neighbour and her cat. Her son, Kyle, discovers this and realises what is happening. Christopher puts doubt in Kyle’s mind when he tells him that he cares about Ellie and that he did it to stop her from taking pills. He reiterates that she now has a new addiction but it can be managed and therefore Ellie will not ruin her family like she did when she was a slave to pills.

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The Ending

Ellie and Christopher begin a murder spree that culminates in Kyle attempting to kill the lead vampire once and for all. Failing to drive a steak through his heart, Ellie leaps to Kyles side and as a team, they manage to stop Christopher by stabbing him with a stake repeatedly. From this Kyle vows to never leave Ellie’s side but once again the addiction becomes too much and Ellie attempts to murder him. Both children violently fight their mother and are left on the brink of death whilst defending themselves.

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Ellie flees into the night leaving them behind and at the films close we see Ellie going under a fake name, attending a new 12 step programme.

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Personally I would like to take this as a positive note that she is trying to control her addiction, however, it is most likely that she is operating in a similar fashion that Christopher had and her next victim isn’t too far away.

What the themes of the film are

Family Blood is obviously heavily centered around addiction and whilst the vampirism is supernatural, there are several aspects of addiction based in reality that we see throughout the film. The most obvious is the fact that Ellie destroys her relationship with not only her lover but also her family. Addicts often express regret at how they have treated others when under the influence and drugs and alcohol are often cited as the reason for several breakups and estranged family relationships.

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There are also several other allusions in the form of Ellie self-harming and going through rubbish looking for a hit. Meth addicts are often attributed as having picked at their face until there are deep scabs and cuts due to the drug’s effect on them and I have seen several addiction documentaries that often focus on people rooting through rubbish in order to secure something that can provide another hit.

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Similar to the way that most addicts feel, Ellie views herself as a curse upon her family and thinks that they would be better off without her. This is often a tragic symptom of mental illness and addiction and one of the huge negativities of drugs that causes suffering in the long-term.

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My Review

Overall I thought Family Blood did an admirable job at tackling some of the more weighty themes that exist today. However, the film was poorly paced in my eyes and the overall execution left it feeling hollow. This is a shame as there is a wealth of discussion to be had on the film thematically but it just doesn’t seem to quite nail down its points in a way that would provide an interesting analysis.

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As always I’d love to hear your thoughts on the film so if you’ve seen it please comment below discussing your takeaways from it. If you are struggling with addiction then I highly recommend checking out Mind. They deal heavily with addiction and dependency and are always willing to help those who want to turn their life around.

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If you enjoyed this video, please like it and subscribe to my channel. I do ending explained videos across a wide range of media from films, to games and TV. I recently discussed the ending of God Of War and Infinity War so make sure you check out those next.

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Thanks very much for taking the time to watch this video. I’ll see you next time, take care, PEACE!