Quick to grab our attention, Blood Bound, written and directed by Richard Lemay, opens on a trio of burglars in the throes of a violent home invasion. The furor dies down as quickly as it started, though, as we unceremoniously cut to aerial footage of a forest as a pair of movers discovers a trunk filled with cash, bait that would soon trap them all as pawns in a centuries-old curse. This particular curse being that classic horror staple of the ancient ancestor that made a pact and now their descendants need to perform a periodic sacrifice to appease an ancient evil, you know the kind. If it seems like I’m giving away a little too much, then for the love of all that is unholy, don’t watch the trailer or read the summary on IMDB, because those go way further than I have in spoiling things. We’re still going to post it, not my business to tell a production company how to cut a trailer, but if you come out of this with any interest in seeing this film, give that a pass.

While others are ultimately ensnared by this plot devised by family elders Raul (Joseph Melendez) and Sarita (Rosa Arredondo), the main targets are Kerry (Eden Brolin), a troubled youth who is apparently a great student with a full scholarship lined up, but who struggles with not rising to the expectations of her sheriff father on account of her drug use and occasional armed robbery, and her boyfriend Sean (Eric Nelsen) who works as a auto mechanic when not being pushed around by his half-grizzly bear brother and who seems way far more dedicated to Kerry than she is to him, a source of considerable tension. There’s also Brian (Justiin A. Davis), I guess, he’s just kind of there and doesn’t do much (big mood). While Raul and Sarita are pulling the strings and act as the main enforcers of the ritual, we end up spending more time with David (Ross Wellinger), an initiate in the order tasked with stealing Kerry away from Sean for some ritual-related reason.

Blood Bound has a lot of “it’s just how the ritual works” hand-waving going on to justify a great many logical conflicts that arise out of simultaneously making its villains immensely powerful, capable of being anywhere at any time and warping the fabric of reality and yet bound to these plot contrivances necessary to give them (or David, at least) more emotional nuance. David is a strange character, at once deviously manipulative and prosaically robotic, born in an insular community, ignorant of the ways of society but able to wield them to his own vaguely-defined ends. He has the blue steel look and heartthrob appeal of Edward from Twilight with the emotionally abusive and psychopathic tendencies of Edward from Twilight. In fact, Blood Bound could probably pass for a Twilightesque Young Adult Fiction film if you removed the rape, drug use, suicide, and incest themes. Well, you could probably keep some of the incest, the clan’s only got so many cousins to go around. Moreso than Twilight, the acting from the villains here reminded me more of the kitschy theatricality of a Charmed warlock of the week, a show I used to watch religiously because I just had to know if Phoebe would ever find a good man and put Cole behind her.

Outside of reigniting my dormant Charmed nostalgia, what keeps Blood Bound compelling largely comes down to Brolin’s portrayal of Kerry. This is what you want out of a horror movie heroine. She’s persistent and resourceful in the face of an overwhelming enemy and manages to retain a sense of emotional vulnerability while still making us feel the weight of resignation that would naturally follow such a hopeless predicament. Her writing, along with Sean’s, seems to come from a much more raw and understated place than our villains which is heightened by her physical performance as she navigates her uncertainty over her future with Sean and unease with David. The visuals are hit and miss with some bold camera and editing choice contrasting a somewhat tiresome muted color palette and some questionable makeup and effects. The score generally takes a back seat to the film’s benefit, only reintroducing the occasional eerie hum to punctuate key moments.

There are a fair number of missteps and holes in Blood Bound’s approach but it never becomes a chore to watch thanks to Brolin’s performance and a plot that adds new elements to the formula at a decent enough clip to keep the audience engaged in discovering how it all plays out.

BLOOD BOUND is available on Demand January 15, 2019