Cinema
In Our Blood
Pedro Kos (director)
Glasgow FrightFest 2025 (studio)
88 (length)
07 March 2025 (released)
11 March 2025
Director Pedro Kos’s documentary background is to the fore and well used here for his feature film debut.
Filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady) teams up with photographer Danny (E.J. Bonilla) after she receives a letter from her estranged mother Sam (Alanna Ubach) inviting her to thanksgiving. It’s an odd invitation as Sam was a junkie and been out of Emily’s life since her early teens. Nevertheless Emily sees a story in this reunion.
Arriving at the dusty town on Las Cruces, New Mexico the filming starts in earnest with a candid interview with Sam and the reason for the letter.
After a night in a motel where Emily records her thoughts and sends them on, they are invited to the community centre where Sam was rehabilitated and is now employed. Meeting with centre director Ana (Krisha Fairchild) they are introduced to others who are hoping to benefit from the programme. Sam however fails to turn up and it turns out that others in the town have been disappearing.
The film now swivels into an investigation as Emily searches out her mother’s contacts and acquaintances, with mixed results. Danny is starting to get cold feet while Emily is on a mission, that also includes dealing with the local cartel gang ominously named Los Carniceros.
Pedro Kos’s venture into feature films is assured, based on Mallory Westfall’s screenplay yet doesn’t depart too far from his filmmaking roots. Employing elements of both fake do and found footage formats Kos builds the story with the introduction of characters and situations for interview, careful not to neglect Emily and Danny’s stories.
Their stories are the fictional element that later on feed the horror and mystery of the film. However In Our Blood keeps a foot in reality by featuring people who are genuinely homeless addicted and part of an ongoing project. All are credited at the end of the film.
The denouement is satisfying and again draws on Kos’s documentary experience. It’s fantastical yet carefully thought through so as it can also be viewed as an observation of society’s current values.
In Our Blood had its European premiere at Glasgow FrightFest 2025.
Filmmaker Emily Wyland (Brittany O’Grady) teams up with photographer Danny (E.J. Bonilla) after she receives a letter from her estranged mother Sam (Alanna Ubach) inviting her to thanksgiving. It’s an odd invitation as Sam was a junkie and been out of Emily’s life since her early teens. Nevertheless Emily sees a story in this reunion.
Arriving at the dusty town on Las Cruces, New Mexico the filming starts in earnest with a candid interview with Sam and the reason for the letter.
After a night in a motel where Emily records her thoughts and sends them on, they are invited to the community centre where Sam was rehabilitated and is now employed. Meeting with centre director Ana (Krisha Fairchild) they are introduced to others who are hoping to benefit from the programme. Sam however fails to turn up and it turns out that others in the town have been disappearing.
The film now swivels into an investigation as Emily searches out her mother’s contacts and acquaintances, with mixed results. Danny is starting to get cold feet while Emily is on a mission, that also includes dealing with the local cartel gang ominously named Los Carniceros.
Pedro Kos’s venture into feature films is assured, based on Mallory Westfall’s screenplay yet doesn’t depart too far from his filmmaking roots. Employing elements of both fake do and found footage formats Kos builds the story with the introduction of characters and situations for interview, careful not to neglect Emily and Danny’s stories.
Their stories are the fictional element that later on feed the horror and mystery of the film. However In Our Blood keeps a foot in reality by featuring people who are genuinely homeless addicted and part of an ongoing project. All are credited at the end of the film.
The denouement is satisfying and again draws on Kos’s documentary experience. It’s fantastical yet carefully thought through so as it can also be viewed as an observation of society’s current values.
In Our Blood had its European premiere at Glasgow FrightFest 2025.
