A documentary about a painful family reunion takes a turn into altogether darker territory when filmmaker Emily (White Lotus star Brittany O’Grady) realises that the subject of her movie has gone missing. Hauling cinematographer Danny (E.J. Bonilla) along for the ride, Emily sets out in search of her mother.

Found footage movies about would-be documentary makers are a dime a dozen, but very few of them come directed by bona fide documentarians. In Our Blood has this in director Pedro Kos, who was nominated for an Oscar with his short film Lead Me Home. As such, this moody horror film is more confidently shot than most, with a genuinely engaging frontwoman in O’Grady’s Emily. Any found footage horror which doesn’t spend most of its time following its subjects as they run around screaming aimlessly in the dark is to be celebrated, and In Our Blood has far more on its mind than that.

In its story of addiction among society’s most vulnerable, some surprisingly heavy themes are tackled. The real faces and residents of ‘transitional community’ Camp Hope feature in the film’s end credits, speaking to a deeper consideration for the issue of homelessness on the streets of New Mexico. This unexpected depth sits ill at ease with the more goofy developments lurking in the finale, marking a tonal shift (rats and a pig’s head aside) which doesn’t entirely work but at least grabs one’s attention. It’s a shot in the arm for the otherwise leaden pacing and not-particularly-enticing mystery of the first half.

In Our Blood is undeniably well made and has good intentions in its account of the lost and vulnerable in modern New Mexico. However, its genre work is somewhat anaemic, coming in too late and too out of left field to function as much more than a tacked-on postscript to the film Kos really wanted to make.

IN OUR BLOOD premiered at FrightFest Glasgow on March 7th, 2025.