Blood Ties | freshness and thrills in dark tale from Ethan Menear

Writer/director Ethan Menear’s short film Blood Ties, set in 1800s Cornwall, adds freshness to the classic trope of the two warring families (the Teagues and the Highdarshs) who hold a grudge through their generations even when the original conflict is lost to time. It is the son Thomas Teague and William Highdarsh who conduct a secret relationship and daughter Emma Teague who is committed to continuing the family hate. This makes a nice change from damsels in distress.

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Grudge

There is a text prologue explaining the grudge; it mentions that the death of Lowenna Teague, the mother, further increases the tension between the two families but there’s no mention of the Highdarsh family having anything to do with it. It’s not clear whether this was a plot cut or simply that the grief from the death of the mother made them more volatile.

Lush landscape

As the film runs for just under 10 minutes, Menear keeps the focus on the core of the drama, which is the relationship between Thomas and William. There is enough promised conflict in Thomas’s secret to keep watching past the necessary scene setting of the first half in to keep watching and we move from dingy claustrophobic interiors into the lush landscape of a country estate garden.

Lingering

For me, the drama and personal relationships come through more strongly than the horror; I thought Keira Savage as Emma left the most lingering impression, as we see the family grudge intensify even further – particularly in the final scene. This is more of a film to unease rather than terrify.

Multiple cliffhangers

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There is some visual imagery that ties the ending back to an earlier scene so whilst there are multiple cliffhangers, it doesn’t feel unfinished. However, I think Blood Ties does have the potential to be expanded on – I would like to have explored the rivalries before the two families more rather than just a text prologue at the beginning – but as it is a quick watch I think it is still worth seeing and to mull over the many possibilities that might have happened after the credits roll.