SYNOPSIS:

After nurse Ari (46, Korean American) flees her violent ex-husband, with her disabled Hemophiliac daughter MERRY (11), who is on a walker, and autistic vampire enthusiast BEN (8), she settles in a small town.

Working in the pediatric unit she meets dreamy paediatrician ADAM, who heads the pediatric research committee. She is bullied by dominating nurse EVE.

On her first day at work, Ari has a seizure and Merry falls. Adam picks the kids up from school, endearing him to the whole family. He invites them to the community centre to meet other families. Ben sneaks off to the blood drive van outside, where he sees Eve lift her bloody mouth from a patient. Adam’s son SEPH (15) takes him inside the empty van.

Ari later falls from a ladder. When Adam and Seph find Ari, Seph slyly licks a drop of her blood, spotted by Merry.

Adam brings them to live with him until Ari’s injuries heal. They soon become a family unit with Seph roughhousing with Ben and Adam dancing with Merry. Ari’s mom, a ninja of some kind, cautions Ari against Adam’s love-bombing.

Adam coaches uncoordinated Ben’s basketball team. Adam and Seph practice with Ben. Ari admires how good Adam is with Ben.

Seph massages Ben’s shoulders, making Ari uncomfortable. Adam dismisses her concerns as overprotective and paranoid, due to her past abuse. He also tells her about a mysterious disease outbreak causing hallucinations.

Ari’s history includes being committed to a psychiatric unit by her ex, after a psychotic break. She’s wary that her ex could use any accusations she makes, to say that she’s delusional. He might get her committed and take the kids.

At a later basketball game, Ari notices Adam patting the butts of players but none of the other moms seem bothered.

Merry, creeped out by Seph, tells Ari they need to get out but Ari accuses her of sabotaging her new relationship with Adam. Adam overhears the conversation. Alarmed that they may leave, he proposes that night.

Seph and Merry try to bond before the wedding. But at the wedding, Merry sees Seph momentarily turn into a vampire. She wonders whether she’s imagining it. At the wedding, Ari meets Adam’s strange assortment of friends. When they leave, the wedding becomes a vampire feeding frenzy on the wedding guests.

Adam later is accused of molesting one of the basketball kids. Ben and Merry are interviewed by police and defend Adam. As Merry runs to Adam, Ari can see she is barely using the walker. A medical miracle?

Ari becomes wary watching Seph and Adam play with her kids in the pool. What was charming now seems sinister.

Ari, sleepless, checks on Ben – Seph, in full vampire mode, feeds on Ben! And he’s being coached by a vampire!

Ari vascillates between questioning her sanity. Could her new stepson is a vampire? Is Adam’s attention to Merry normal? She visits a priest who says Merry is a temptation and it’s on Ari to satisfy her husband.

Ari rises beyond her doubts and plots to escape. But Merry relapses and is admitted to the pediatric unit. Ari is told the hospital is on lockdown (the mysterious disease) and she must leave. But she breaks in to rescue Merry. She discovers a ring of vampires preying on children. She escapes with Merry and goes to the police. This gets her admitted to a psych ward.

The children break her out and plan to escape. But Ari knows that without the vampire venom, Merry will lose her ability to walk. Ari calls her mother – from a long line of vampire hunters – and hatches a plan.

Adam traps Ari, confessing that Adam and Eve are the first vampires and lead the town’s vampire ring. They do vampire-human research. Vampire venom heals children whilst satiating the vampires. Female haemophiliacs like Merry are hunted. As adults, they can see and hunt vampires. Ari sees the kids, hidden, poised to attack Adam. Ari stabs herself to distract Adam who sinks his fangs into her. The trio escape and Adam and Seph track them.

Ari’s mother uses Ari’s mobile phone to draw Seph and Adam to the hospital, where her vampire-hunting team captures them. Seph is vaporised and Adam escapes and vanishes.

At Merry’s 21st birthday, she injects venom from the vampire who is willingly held in captivity in Merry's vault. It's her mother, Ari. At the party Merry sees a vampire – just a teen girl to everyone else - in her new role as vampire slayer.

Blood Drive explores a parent’s darkest fears and questions how far we go before believing the unbelievable.

BLOOD DRIVE