Aaron’s Blood [2016] is the 3rd film from writer/director Tommy Stovall. Aaron (James Martinez) must do everything within his power to save his hemophiliac son Tate (Trevor Stovall) who has become infected with vampire’s blood.
A Promising Start. The first 30 minutes of this film waivered in a kind of strange, precisely maneuvered dance. There’s this obvious sense of the production having a minimum budget that is expertly masked from scene to scene thanks to competent cinematography, scoring, and sound. James Martinez gives a grounded, intelligent, and likable performance as Aaron while Trevor Stovall is believable and not at all awkward. The story moves briskly and the circumstances are laid out subtly. It’s all an interesting and honest story that allows any technical inconsistencies or missteps to be forgiven. That is until those first 30 minutes come and go, and then things go awry.
“I got some bad blood, didn’t I?” With an 80 minute runtime, the script has no fluff. Things move along quickly and precisely with the story unfolding without hesitation, for good and for bad. There are a handful of moments that would have worked wonderfully if they had time to settle, to marinate, to delve deeper into. Too many significant moments occur at a maddening speed, especially with the reveal and realization of Tate’s situation coming to fruition in such a mundane flurry that everything instantly becomes unbelievable. All subtly is thrown out the window and suddenly nothing feels honest or interesting anymore. Characters come to terms with the exceptional circumstances with little hesitation, and a 3rd party with all the answers is introduced in far too loose a way for anyone to buy into it.
Anyone Got Any Extra Lumens? The film struggles with technical inconsistencies throughout, mostly in regards to sound and lighting. Some scenes have scruffy dialogue, and too many scenes are not consistent with or have incredibly annoying room tone. One hospital room visit echoes like the characters are speaking in a metal hallway. Also, too many scenes are dark. Way too dark. Really, really dark. Anything happening at night or generally indoors without natural lighting from windows is full of shadow and little detail. Sometimes a character will walk through an incredibly dark hallway and suddenly enter into a brilliantly lit room with the same hallway behind them being just as bright.
“He’s just a guy trying to save his son is all.” What’s most frustrating is, like pointed out in the first paragraph, the low budget/amateurish nature of the film is so respectively hidden for the first 3rd of the film before things begin to unravel. One scene looks and sounds perfect and then the next feels unfinished. The middle of the film is also the weakest as far as the story goes. The beginning and end house the most interesting ideas and concepts, with the 2nd act twist not necessarily being surprising but being refreshing as to the nature and reasoning behind certain actions. It appears to me that one particular character actually holds the more interesting story that we’ll never get to explore.
An Imperfect Package. Altogether, there is a lot of good here; but when things go bad they go really bad. Whether it was a lack of time or lack of resources the film drastically morphs in quality from scene to scene and sometimes moment to moment. The leading performances and overall story are enough to carry the film despite its varied limitations, but it overall feels less than it deserves to.
Aaron’s Blood tells an interesting story with well-casted actors surrounded
by wavering production quality and moments of amateur filmmaking.
Related: What's the story behind Aaron's Blood?
Check out our interview with Aaron’s Blood Director Tommy Stovall
for behind the scenes information on the film's production.
Watch Aaron's Blood on iTunes