Blood Vessel is a 2019 horror movie starring Alyssa Sutherland, Nathan Phillips, Alex Cooke, and Robert Taylor.
The survivors of a U-Boat attack on an Allied ship are left stranded in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with no hope of rescue, only to find a German Ghost Ship. Deciding to use the vessel for shelter, they soon find that aboard the boat are a family of vampires who are more than happy at the opportunity for a snack.
List of tropes applying to this film:
- Arc Words: "Family."
- Asshole Victim: Faraday and Bigelow are the two meanest and most useless out of the main cast, so it isn't heartbreaking to see them go.
- Awesome Aussie: Sinclair is something of an idiot, but still proves adept at vampire killing.
- Badass Normal: Alexander, the Made of Iron Russian soldier who kicks tons of vampire ass.
- Big Bad: The Patriarch, the leader of the family of vampires.
- Black Dude Dies First: Subverted. Jackson is actually the second to die.
- Creepy Child: Maya, the vampire child.
- Dead Star Walking: Robert Taylor is one of the most recognizable out of the cast, and dies almost immediately after the film begins.
- Death by Materialism: Bigelow is devoured by the Patriarch when he opens the vampire's coffin while searching for valuables.
- Death by Racism: Bigelow, the most outwardly racist of the passengers, is the first to be killed by the vampires.
- Decoy Protagonist: Plenty of people are set up as the protagonist, then promptly offed.
- Captain Malone is initially set up as the protagonist, only to be torn apart by the ship's propellers during the initial boarding.
- Jackson is given a ton of focus during the first act and is one of the few to take charge of the situation. He's unexpectedly shot in the head by the German survivor before the vampires even start attacking.
- Jane is set up as the Final Girl, only to be infected and vanish during the final act until she turns up fully transformed into a vampire.
- Dirty Coward: Faraday, who hides all the food aboard the lifeboat so that he could keep himself alive a little longer at everyone's expense, freaks out at the slightest sign of danger, and eventually contacts the Nazis via radio and tries to offer them British codes just to save his own skin. To his credit, he is apologetic about it.
- Downer Ending: Though the ship is blown up, destroying all the vampires, Sinclair rescued an infected Jane, who promptly turns and kills him, before being rescued by a British ship. The only respite is that sunrise is near.
- Dwindling Party: Par for the course for a horror film. Hell, two of the survivors die before the vampires even start attacking.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The vampires are a rather loving family, with the male calling the female "my love" upon her awakening and delighting in being back in her company.
- Genre Savvy: Faraday is the only one who realizes how terrible of an idea it is to stay on the ship, especially when the bodies start turning up.
- Ghostapo: To absolutely no one's surprise, the Nazis attempted to use the Patriarch and Matriarch as weapons of war. It clearly didn't turn out the way they had planned.
- Heroic Sacrifice: An infected Alexander remains aboard the ship to blow it up with an artillery shell to stop the vampires.
- Jerkass:
- Faraday is a sniveling coward with classist views.
- Bigelow is a racist, useless jerk who spends the entire movie whining and making crass remarks.
- Oh, Crap!: Faraday when he notices Maya standing right next to him.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The Patriarch and Matriarch are hideous, batlike humanoids who speak in guttural Romanian, can shapeshift, and have a psychic link with anyone they've infected, which allows them to directly control them when focusing but also causes them to feel the pain of any injuries that are inflicted on someone they are controlling.
- Too Dumb to Live: Sinclair is constantly refusing to share vital information with everyone else for absolutely no reason.
