Blood Drive

After nurse Ari (46, Korean American) flees her violent ex-husband, with  her disabled Hemophiliac daughter MERRY (11), who is on a walker, and autistic vampire enthusiast BEN (8), she settles in a new town. Working in the pediatric unit she meets dreamy paediatrician ADAM (50). A fellow nurse, EVE, is secretly a vampire who runs the school blood drive.

On her first day at work, Ari has a seizure and Merry falls. Adam picks them up from school, taking them to see their mother, endearing him to the whole family. On the mend, Ari falls from a ladder breaking her leg whilst Adam’s blood-phobic son SEPH (15) tutors Ben. When Adam and Seph find Ari, Seph slyly licks a drop of her blood, spotted by Merry. Adam brings the family to live with him whilst Ari heals. They soon become a family unit with Seph roughhousing with Ben and Adam dancing with Merry.

At the pediatric unit, a throng of vampires led by head vampire FIRST (ancient) feed on children including paralysed patient JAX (11) at a tasting party. Children are tasted not drained, conferring healing properties to the children. However, a boy with haemophilia is drained dead by the throng.

Adam coaches Ben’s basketball team, where Ben’s lack of coordination is on full display. A Bitchy Mom lusts after Adam, in hearing of Ari. Her son bullies Ben and Adam pulls him up. Adam and Seph later practice with Ben, with Ari and Merry admiring how good Adam is with Ben.

Seph massages Ben’s shoulders, making Ari uncomfortable. Adam laughs off her concerns as overprotective.

At a later basketball game, Ari notices Adam patting the butts of players but none of the other moms seem bothered. Adam and Seph hit the showers with Ben and the other players, with Seph telling Ben not to be weird about the nudity.

When Seph hypnotises Ben, Merry dares him to hypnotise her. When he tries, his eyes flash purple.

Merry freaks, telling her mom they need to get out but Ari accuses her of sabotaging her new relationship with Adam. Adam overhears the conversation. He proposes that night.

Seph and Merry bond before the wedding. But at the wedding, Merry sees Seph momentarily turn into a vampire. She wonders whether she’s going insane. At the wedding, Ari meets Adam’s strange assortment of friends. When they leave, the wedding becomes a vampire feeding frenzy on the wedding guests.

Adam later is accused of molesting one of the basketball kids. Ben and Merry are interviewed by police and defend Adam. As Merry runs to Adam, Ari can see she is barely using the walker. A medical miracle?

Ari becomes increasingly uncomfortable of Seph’s closeness with Ben. She sees Seph, in full vampire mode, feeding on Ben. Seph is being coached by First!

Ari vascillates between considering her own sanity and believing her new family are vampires. She visits a priests who suggests Merry is a temptation and it’s on Ari to satisfy her husband.

It all comes to a head when her children tell her and she believe them. This gets her admitted to a psych ward.

The children break her out via an elaborate ruse and plan to escape. However Ari is sick of running. She knows that without the vampire venom, Merry will lose her ability to walk. Ari calls her mother – who is from a long line of vampire hunters – who hatches a plan.

Adam traps her, telling her the truth. Adam is First, as in the legend of Adam and Eve. There is a vampire ring in the area and there’s a symbiotic relationship between kids being bitten and healing and vampires being sated.

However, female haemophiliacs like Merry, are prized and hunted to extinction because, as adults, they have the ability to see vampires and become vampire hunters.

The kids come to Ari’s rescue but Ben's phone rings and they're sprung. Ari stabs herself to distract Adam/First and he sinks his fangs into her. The trio escape First and Seph - who is also now on the hunt - and hide.

Whilst they hide, Ari’s mother uses Ben’s stinky shirt and Ari’s mobile phone to draw Seph and Adam behind her. When the two vampires arrive at the hospital, Ari’s mom and her vampire hunting crew capture them, extracting an ongoing supply of venom.

At Merry’s 21st Birthday, she injects vampire venom from the vampire  who is willingly held in captivity in Merry's vault. It's her mother, Ari. Merry joins the party. There she clearly sees a vampire entering – just a teen girl to everyone else. With a nod to her grandma, it’s clear that she’s about to kill  the vampire, in her new role as vampire slayer. 

Blood Drive explores the question ‘how could a mother not know if her children were being hurt?’ It taps into a parent’s darkest fears about their children being preyed upon at the hands of the people they trust – teachers, doctors, family members. Blood Drive never mentions sexual abuse, but tackles it sideways, using vampires as a metaphor. COMPS: THE STEPFATHER meets THE LOST BOYS.