Abraham’s Boys Review: A Cutting-Edge Slow Burn!
Count Dracula has become the most prominent figure in vampire lore since his introduction in 1897 by Bram Stoker. It seems there is no limit to the angles filmmakers and authors are able to take when it comes to examining his story and how it has impacted the living and the undead. Dracula’s existence has influenced films like Nosferatu (both in 2024 and in 1922), Renfield, The Last Voyage of the Demeter (an expansion on the original story), and Abigail (providing a side story of his daughter’s existence) in recent memory.
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Where he tends to be the focal point of these films, as well as a looming presence over them, Abraham’s Boys, based on the original short story by Joe Hill in 20th Century Ghosts, takes on Abraham Van Helsing as its main interest, the well-known vampire slayer from 1897’s Dracula. Writer and director Natasha Kermani is not afraid to defy expectations by creating a film that twists the characters we know and allows us to view them through a different lens. Abraham’s Boys gives audiences a tale that explores the result if Mina Harker were to marry vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing in a steady exploration of progress and faith.
Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver), his wife Mina (Jocelin Donahue), and their two boys Max (Brady Hepner) and Rudy (Judah Mackey) have just fled England in the hopes of starting fresh in the California countryside. Here, Abraham can continue his life’s work that he has hidden from his two boys, until now. When Mina is diagnosed by her husband as “sick” with visions and psychological episodes, Max begins to discover just who his father really is and what he has been hiding.
Natasha Kermani’s direction is still and calm throughout, creating an uneasy feeling amidst the family’s internal chaos and lurking danger. Where films tend to mimic the frightened nature of its characters through shaky camerawork and quick editing, Kermani is able to create suspense through the tranquility of her shots and ease as she follows her characters. In this way, the audience is able to connect with Max as he slowly unravels his father’s true intentions.
Abraham’s Boys opts for atmospheric tension and style as it pertains to its source material, breaking away from classic horror films in the genre to feel more like a family drama than a blood-sucking vampire movie. Its examination of medical professions as well as men of faith during the time, holding power over those with less knowledge and information at their disposal, makes a strong case for the dangers of blind faith towards those in power.
Kermani commands the screen with her lighting and cinematography choices, with the help of Julia Swain, by illuminating her shots in the daytime in the California sun, while maintaining a sinister atmosphere in the dark. This is able to amplify the known conventions of vampires and their association to light, or lack thereof.
One of the most compelling angles presented in Abraham’s Boys is Abraham Van Helsing’s characterization as it pertains to faith and progress. Script choices that highlight the building of railroads and isolating his family to the countryside reiterate the ideas of Van Helsing, a man of faith, being afraid of imminent progress and the growth of knowledge among people. This in turn would take away the power that he has over those willing to follow his lead, a thought that also pertains to his sons and their ability to break free of the hold he has over them.
Brady Hepner, having been in another Joe Hill adaptation of The Black Phone, is able to play Max with a quietness that plays well with the film’s tension as well as strength that elevates Max’s growth both physically and intellectually as he hides his suspicion towards his father. Where faith is described in the film as “putting belief in something you know not to be true,” Abraham’s Boys is able to expand on young men’s view of their father and the difficulty of moving away from everything they have been taught. Although it may be slower for those looking for yet another blood soaked entry, Abraham’s Boys know the direction it wishes to take and sticks with its vision throughout.
‘Abraham’s Boys’ Rating – 3.5/5
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