Blood Honey
released 2017
www.ink2quill.com

“Blood Honey” is a Canadian drama, horror, psychological thriller, mystery film directed by Jeff Kopas who also wrote it with Doug Taylor.  This movie crosses so many genres. It stars the talented cast which includes Shenae Grimes-Beech, Rosemary Dunsmore, Gil Bellows, Kenneth Mitchell, Natalie Brown, Don McKellar, Morgan Kelly, Scott McCord, Matt Gordon, Krystal Hope Nausbaum, Ellen-Ray Hennssy, Ava Preston, Luke McMillan and many others. It was produced by Jeff Kopas, Robert Budreau and Ryan Reaney.

Blood Honey IMDb webpage 

“Blood Honey” is the story of a woman named Jenibel Heath, played by Shenae Grimes-Beech, returning to her childhood home on a secluded island because her father is dying. She is tortured by bad memories from her childhood and has to deal with the bad feelings she has toward her father and other family members. She constantly relives the memory of her mother´s suicide and will not face the reasons why.

This really isn´t a story of someone coming to terms with past traumas or making amends with the people she blocked out of her life. During the course of the story Jenibel uncovers and remembers more of her family history but the trauma and dysfunction of her family continues in the present. At one point she asks to be taken off the secluded island her family lives on but is denied the plane ride and when she tries to fly off herself she crashes. Her very life is in danger when she inherits a majority share of her family´s estate. During her ordeal she struggles with mental illness and the fact that she never really got closure with her father, although she understands him better.

Jenibel´s trip is basically a nightmare into her past to dredge up old wounds and take a deep look inside of herself through the lens of her mental illnesses. She blames her father for her mother´s suicide but does not blame her mother for holding her father prisoner on the island which eventually led to his death. This is symbolic of Jenibel´s inability or unwillingness to take an honest look at her life. This is also the sad story of someone who becomes the monster (she hates and fled from) through her misdeeds, like a rebel leader who condemns violence and corruption in the ruling group and yet kills all of them to take their place. It´s the sad hypocrisy of a character who falsely believed at first that she went home with the best of intentions. Things are not what they seem, at all.

“Blood Honey” is a good film with many strange and unexpected twists and turns in the story. It encompasses so many metaphors and has you wondering WTF?! throughout. I recommend it as a must see and own.

Written by John

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