By: Malasha Parker
Starting off as a film about a man working towards getting into major league baseball and ending with a strange twist, In My Blood feels like an unbelievable dream. The plot of the story isn’t anything new and the ending provides a twist that isn’t normal, but also doesn’t bring the shock factor like it seems to want to make the audience feel.
Jake (Daniel Diemer) is at the batting cages after having received some bad news about making a baseball team. He doesn’t like the feedback he’s been given and he doesn’t think it will go over well with his father either. After talking to Coach Wilson (Ian Blackman), he gets dressed to leave. He’s angry and looks at some steroid shots and injection needles before leaving. He hears a growling noise on his way out, but makes it home with no interactions. When Jake arrives at his house he and his dad (Will Chase) get into an argument about him not making a baseball team yet. His father lets it be known that he is only on his current minor league team because of his connections. Jake storms to his room and eventually injects the liquid in the syringe into his mutilated thigh. Jake starts to growl and get aggressive. His father calls to him, but we then see Jake in the woods. His father comes out with a gun and Jake runs right into it. The screen goes black and he’s awake again. He finds out more news later from his coach about the possibility of him being a part of a major league baseball team. The coach suggests he tells his dad and when Jake goes home, he learns some interesting news about where his father has gone.
Daniel Diemer’s performance is not bad, but there isn’t much for the script for him to give anything significant to the character. He’s a hot tempered minor league baseball player who harbors anger within himself because of how his father feels about him being a baseball player. The best moment is at the very end when Jake turns back with a sinister smirk before continuing his walk to the house.
Alex Bendo’s directing doesn’t hold a lot of space for his vision to be fully viewed. Additionally, his writing doesn’t allow the characters to be written as more than just one-dimensional. They don’t show anything but one mindset and that is their anger towards each other and within themselves. Two notable moments that are well directed by Bendo are the scene of Jake calling out to his dad as the camera is fixated on the cracked door and the final moments before the short film ends. The cinematography is disappointing as well because of the poor lighting and the extremely constant close-up shots.
In My Blood is underwhelming and doesn’t really spike intrigue until closer to the end of the twenty minute film. It doesn’t provide an appealing visual as most of the film is shot in cool, dull bluish gray tones. It makes it a hard watch, but Diemer does the best with the material given. Its small attempt to tap further into the pain that can be caused by expectations and sharing the same blood with someone that is selfish doesn’t provide enough for viewers to truly feel like either father or son deserves to be treated the way they’re treating each other.