You know you're about to watch a very unusual film when, during the first 10 or so minutes already, a passionate love-making sequences is montaged together with footage of an open brain-surgery. The weirdness continues when an adult son, with the persuasive help of his new girlfriend, decides to play a prank on the father by pretending to have slit his wrists and lay dead in a bloodied bathtub. Nice! Nothing says "dysfunctional family" like tasteless and downright shocking jokes, I guess!
Now, I have no idea how "Blood Relations" ended up on my must-see list, but there's definitely something oddly compelling about this late 80s Canadian horror/exploitation effort! Three generations of men (and a gardener) live together in their large and secluded family mansion. Grandfather lies nearly dead in his bedroom, the pervy father is a renowned brain surgeon who may or may not killed his wife to inherit her fortune, and the twenty-something son is plotting a scheme to eliminate his father and get his inheritance much quicker and all for himself. In the middle of all this is the stunningly beautiful Marie; - the son Thomas' girlfriend and accomplice, but she's playing her part of seductress very convincingly.
Admittedly there isn't a lot of horror in "Blood Relations", but this widely gets compensated by nudity, erotic atmosphere, and a whole lot of wicked strangeness. For example, I don't recall having seen many other films in which a girl gets down and dirty with the son, his father, and his grandfather! Well, what can you do when a dying old man's last wish is to strip naked and give kisses? The denouement is odd and largely unsatisfying. Mostly odd, though. To be honest, I guessed the ending right halfway through the movie, but then rapidly forgot the idea because it was just too silly and far-fetched. Not silly enough for this crew, apparently.
