Abraham's Boys

Based on a short story by Joe Hill, Abraham’s Boys builds on the aftermath of Abraham Van Helsing’s confrontation with Dracula. Set in 1915 ten years after the death of the Count, he is now in rural California.

Ostensibly Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) and wife Mina (Jocelin Donahue) have moved to an isolated part of California to keep their distance from the vampires that they presume are following them and to protect their sons Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey). Having already fled London and Amsterdam, they are settled, though with the expansion of the railroad across the USA, their isolation is under threat.

Mina is still suffering from her confrontation with Dracula and very weak. Abraham still in fear of the creatures is an austere father to the point of bullying. The boys while respecting their father are starting to question him, in particular Rudy.

Abraham has kept many secrets from his sons, which through trial and error they slowly come to understand that he is not all that he appears.

Written and directed by Natasha Kermani as one would expect isn’t a traditional horror. I’ve not read the story so can’t comment on the adaptation but here the emphasis is very much on the psychological and on Abraham’s state of mind. Doubts are sown regarding the events of ten years ago when Arthur Holmwood (Jonathan Howard) pays a visit.

The Van Helsing family is not a stable one. Max suffers nightmares of his mother and the Count, the latter very much in the shadows. Rudy is more cynical and confrontational, more resistant to his father’s ideas and philosophy. However its Abraham and his hubris that is at the centre rather than the ‘Boys.’

He has no doubt in his mind that his past and possibly future actions are/will be justified indeed his calling. Not just for his family but humanity itself.

This is all very interesting and there is a natural correlation with Stoker’s source material. However the pace tends to hamper the development and interest in the characters starts to wane as the film progresses.

Plus points are that the film looks wonderful with the academy ratio, bright if soft colour tones with the occasional strange sounds and whispers all contributing to create a hallucinatory effect that the film maybe could have explored further.

Abraham’s Boys is available now on Shudder.