EIGHTEEN years after the death of Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) has built a new life for himself, wife Mina and their two sons on the edge of the new world in California.
And with railway lines now being laid within reach of their hillside retreat, away from prying eyes, the threat of the vampire virus once more poses a serious threat, with each unwanted visitor a potential vampire from the old world.
Always vigilant and prepared for what might come, Abraham trains his sons on how to vanquish these monsters should they come knocking. As their mother Mina (Jocelin Donahue) becomes more withdrawn and maudlin, living in constant fear of the demons waiting in the shadows, eldest son Max (Brady Hepner) is tasked with keeping watchful eye over her.
The Van Helsing’s life is lonesome and harsh, as their overbearing and domineering father sees everything as a calamitous threat and constantly keeps his questioning and compassionate wife and children from engaging with it. Their sanity and patience is severely tested, until ultimately it proves a case of hell being the truth seen too late.
Now streaming on Shudder, director Natasha Kermani’s alluring take on Joe Hill’s short story, Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story is intriguing from beginning to end and artfully made. This gothic psychodrama is certainly slow-moving and probably won’t appeal to those who like their spills and thrills fast-paced and rinky-dink.
The only sense we ever get of an outside threat throughout the film comes early on when a caped figure grabs a lone woman walking on a dusty roadside. Other than that, we see a shadowy figure in another scene lurking in the distance that may or may not be one of Dracula’s undead disciples.
Abraham’s Boys is an unsettling and captivating watch but it falls short in the final third. Bite is lacking, and what could have been a truly great film, instead leaves us wanting more with questions left unanswered.
(3/5)