Seann William Scott breaks free from his usual comic persona in this dark and tense thriller from writer/director Henry Jacobson.
Evan Cole is a high school guidance counselor who has just become a first-time dad. However, something has been buried inside his mind for years and that is a repressed childhood that was affected from years of abuse. Listening to the stories of three of his students, all of whom have endured some sort of rejection and abuse from loved ones, the repressed feelings slowly begin to take over his mindset. When he learns that one of his students has been protecting his little brother from their alcoholic abusive father, Evan finally unleashes a side he never imagined ever having again.
Finding the drunk at a bar late at night, he kidnaps him and forces him to confess his wrongdoing before killing him. However, he keeps the murder a secret and eventually, he decides to do justice for the other students who have been coming to him about their abusive relationships. Evan will go out at night after his wife and child are asleep and begins to do the same thing to them. As he becomes more unhinged, a shocking turn of events is in store for his family, who soon learn that Evan may be under investigation from a local detective.
There is always going to be a role that will make an actor breakout of their normal or typecast and for the most part, it turns out to be their best performance to date. There have been some flawed ones. One can think of Keanu Reeves’ serial killer turn in The Watcher (which was later revealed that he did the role due to a contract so that’s not entirely his fault). However, for this film, it is definitely going to break Seann William Scott’s typecast as the lunatic comic role that immortalized him as Stifler from the American Pie franchise as he brings in a very dark performance.
From the moment you see Scott as Evan as he sees his infant son, you can see this is going to be something very interesting in terms of his performance. Scott brings a whole new level of “lunatic” in the second act of the film, but it is his quiet mannerisms that slowly builds the tension to the beginning of his killing spree. Scott exhibits a psychological and maniacal rage in his performance once the wheels are set in motion. It is as if he has no emotion, with a little exception when it comes to Evan and his son Andrew.
Cuban-born Mariela Garriga brings a sense of apprehensiveness to her role of Evan’s wife Lauren, who seems to be suffering from both post-partum depression and the fear of her husband’s nocturnal activities may involve killing. As for Dale Dickey, she gives a powerful and at times shocking performance as Evan’s mother Marie, who shows some signs that we may know where Evan may be getting his unhinged abilities from. The flashbacks show a young Marie, excellently played by Cassandra Ballard, exhibiting behavior that inspires Evan to show that family is most important and to protect them at any cost may be necessary, no matter the outcome. The film does bring in some shocking twists to the overall story that amplifies the evil of madness the film conveys.
Bloodline is a film that definitely will break Seann Willian Scott out of the comic loop in one of his best and his darkest performance to date with a shocking set of twists that just make this one exciting thriller.
WFG RATING: B+
Momentum Pictures presents a Blumhouse production in association with Divide/Conquer Films and Mind Hive Films. Director: Henry Jacobson. Producers: Jason Blum, Adam Hendricks, John H. Lang, and Greg Gilreath. Writers: Henry Jacobson, Will Honley, and Avra Fox-Lerner. Cinematography: Isaac Bauman. Editing: Nigel Galt.
Cast: Seann William Scott, Mariela Arriaga, Dale Dickey, Kevin Carroll, Christie Hering, Raymond Alexander Cham Jr., Leith M. Burke, Nick Boraine, Dusty Sorg, Sean H. Schully, Larsen Thompson, Hudson West, Cassandra Ballard, Matthew Bellows.
The film will release in select theaters, On Demand, and Digital on September 20.
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