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Blood Relatives Details

1977 DVD Certificate 18.gif
  • Rated:
  • 50
  • from 180 members

A homicide investigator must bring all his faculties to this case. A family that has grown too close must pay the price of sin when the most intimate act becomes an act of murder. Read more

Starring Donald Sutherland, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence, Aude Landry
Director Claude Chabrol
Genres Drama

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Blood Relatives

A homicide investigator must bring all his faculties to this case. A family that has grown too close must pay the price of sin when the most intimate act becomes an act of murder.

Starring Donald Sutherland, David Hemmings, Donald Pleasence, Aude Landry, Lisa Langlois, Stephane Audran
Director Claude Chabrol
Studio ITV DVD
Run time DVD: 1 hr 31 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate 18.gif
Genres Drama
Language English
Hearing-impaired English
Released DVD: 31 Jan 2000
Production year: 1977
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (3) of Blood Relatives

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  • 3 stars out of 5

    Adapted from an Ed McBain novel, this is directed by the French master Claude Chabrol with a sharp eye for the middle-class hypocrisies of a Canadian community. Donald Sutherland is the detective investigating the assault and murder of a young Montreal girl, with accusations and confessions flying thick and fast, though it's only in the film's final section that there's any real tension. For the rest — astonishingly for Chabrol — it's actually a little wooden and flat.

    • Radio Times
  • Dull psychological thriller, with stock characters and showing none of the flair that Chabrol has exhibited when examining the French middle classes under pressure.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of Blood Relatives

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  • 5 out of 7 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Good viewing for people who enjoy television

    This is an enjoyable TV-grade murder mystery, possibly of interest to people who like programs like Law & Order. It's tempting to say the acting is poor, but to be fair to the actors, it's hard to judge since most of the voices have been dubbed over (despite the fact that the original mouthwork was obviously performed in English)and this could very well be creating the illusion of poor acting. The voice of the girl at the centre of the mystery is particularly bad. She's 14 years old and her voice sounds like a middle-aged woman trying to sound like a young girl. Not only that, the voice over-acts while the body doesn't, and it's all very distracting. It isn't up to Chabrol's usual standard, to say the least. Some European directors seem unable to access their talent when working on an English language production. Have you seen Bergman's 'The Touch'? How embarrassing. It was like a moment of delirium in the middle of an otherwise exemplary career.

    I recommend this film only as a decent murder mystery for people who enjoy that genre on TV.

    If it is measured against Chabrol's other films, it is nothing less than a disaster.

      • Matthew Cunningham from London, England
  • Most recent members' review of Blood Relatives

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  • 5 out of 7 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Good viewing for people who enjoy television

    This is an enjoyable TV-grade murder mystery, possibly of interest to people who like programs like Law & Order. It's tempting to say the acting is poor, but to be fair to the actors, it's hard to judge since most of the voices have been dubbed over (despite the fact that the original mouthwork was obviously performed in English)and this could very well be creating the illusion of poor acting. The voice of the girl at the centre of the mystery is particularly bad. She's 14 years old and her voice sounds like a middle-aged woman trying to sound like a young girl. Not only that, the voice over-acts while the body doesn't, and it's all very distracting. It isn't up to Chabrol's usual standard, to say the least. Some European directors seem unable to access their talent when working on an English language production. Have you seen Bergman's 'The Touch'? How embarrassing. It was like a moment of delirium in the middle of an otherwise exemplary career.

    I recommend this film only as a decent murder mystery for people who enjoy that genre on TV.

    If it is measured against Chabrol's other films, it is nothing less than a disaster.

      • Matthew Cunningham from London, England
  • More like this

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Rating breakdown

180 Member ratings
  • 100
2
  • 90
4
  • 80
9
  • 70
19
  • 60
37
  • 50
28
  • 40
27
  • 30
20
  • 20
24
  • 10
10

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    • A homicide investigator must bring all his faculties to this case. A family that has grown too close must pay the price of sin when the most intimate act becomes an act of murder....