Is Bloodline Scary? The Verdict and the Whole Plot
Yes, 5 out of 10. It's a grim thriller about a very devoted family, with a few violent scenes and nothing supernatural.
🐱THE SCARE SIGNAL
SCARE SCORE
5 /10
🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱🐱
DREAD LEVEL
Medium
The unease lasts about an evening, and it lingers longer if you have a newborn at home.
DOG
Dog: fine
fine, no dog dies.
Ruling: It is a mean little thriller, and the abuse behind the plot makes it a hard watch for some people.
Bloodline runs ninety-seven minutes and stars a social worker whose day job is helping abused teenagers. His evenings are busier than that sounds. His mother also visits the maternity ward with firm opinions about how the nurses should hold her grandson.
The premise, briefly
A social worker with a newborn son and a very protective mother has a side project that involves an abandoned mansion, a chair and a detective who keeps asking questions.
How much do you want to know?
🐱
The verdict above is spoiler-free. Everything below, including the ending, stays hidden until you pick a depth.
🐱CUT TO THE CHASE
How it ends
Lauren forces Chris to shoot himself and posts a message from his phone taking credit for every death. The detective closes the case, Evan backs up the story, and the family stands over their sleeping baby.
The scene you're dreading
Near the end, Lauren meets Chris at a remote spot, tells him she has proof about his father, presses a gun into his hand and makes him shoot himself in the head. Evan watches and smiles. Nothing else that bad follows it.
The dog
No dog dies in Bloodline.
Bloodline is a bleak thriller about a family that covers for its own, and it is more unsettling than gory once you know the plot.
THE SHORT VERSION IS HIDDEN
How it ends, the scene you're dreading, what happens to the dog, and the bottom line. About twenty seconds to read.
What actually happens
A maternity ward with a rude nurse
The movie opens on a hospital nurse who takes a late shower in the staff changing room and does not get to finish it, because an unseen person comes in. Then it jumps back three months. Evan is a social worker who counsels abused and troubled teenagers. His wife Lauren has just given birth to a son, Andrew, and she is having trouble getting the baby to feed. Evan's mother Marie comes to the maternity ward to help, and when she asks one nurse to handle the baby more gently, the nurse is rude to her.
Evan meets a student whose father beat him, then spots that father being thrown out of a bar and offers him a ride. He drives the man to the abandoned mansion where he has been squatting, ties him to a chair, ignores his pleading and kills him. Later a female student hints that her uncle raped her, and Evan takes the uncle to the same mansion for the same treatment. Then another student, Chris, calls to say his drug-addicted father is back and has hit him. The next night Evan goes to the hospital, where the rude nurse sends a junkie away and ends her shift. She is murdered while Evan is in another part of the hospital offering the junkie free drugs. The junkie is Chris's father, and Marie turns out to be the one who killed the nurse. Evan takes Chris's father to the mansion and kills him as well. The next morning the news reports that the bodies Evan buried have been found.
A garden that has been covering for the family since Evan was a teenager
A flashback shows Evan's father attacking Evan and his mother. A teenage Evan killed his father in the same manner as his later victims, and Marie covered it up, buried the body in the garden and promised to protect her son for good. In the present a detective turns up at the house, because every victim is connected to Evan. Lauren starts to wonder as well. That night Chris arrives with a gun and confronts Evan about the death of his father. Evan talks him down and sends him home without the gun.
Lauren makes a phone call
Lauren is nearly convinced now. She searches the garage and finds audio recordings Evan made during the killings, then phones someone to arrange a meeting. Marie tells Evan that Lauren is behaving oddly, so Evan follows her. Lauren meets Chris at a remote location and tells him she has found proof that Evan killed his father. This is the scene people dread most, and it comes near the end: she forces a gun into Chris's hand and makes him shoot himself in the head. Evan smiles, because he understands that Lauren did it to protect him, the same way his mother always has. Lauren then picks up Chris's phone and starts typing.
The ending, explained
The detective comes to Evan's house to say the case is closed. A social media post from Chris's phone takes credit for all the killings, saying he went after abusers and then killed himself once his own father was dead. Evan adds that Chris was often alone in his office, which would explain how Chris learned of the other abused kids. The detective goes, and the family stands together looking at Andrew asleep. Evan's victims, Chris and the nurse are all dead.
The post-credits ruling
Nobody has confirmed whether there's a scene after the credits.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Bloodline scary?
Bloodline is a 5 out of 10. It is a bleak thriller with a few violent scenes and an uneasy mood, and the subject matter of abuse is hard for some viewers.
How does Bloodline end?
Lauren forces Chris to shoot himself and uses his phone to blame him for every killing. The detective closes the case, and the family is left looking at their sleeping baby.
Does the dog die in Bloodline?
No dog dies in Bloodline.
Is there a post-credits scene in Bloodline?
Nobody has confirmed whether Bloodline has a scene after the credits, so it is safest to wait for them to finish.
Who kills the nurse in Bloodline?
Evan's mother Marie does. She kills the rude nurse while Evan is in another part of the hospital, which gives him an alibi.
BLURRED FOR YOUR PROTECTION
The whole plot of Bloodline is hidden, ending included. It stays that way until you ask.
Bloodline is ninety-seven minutes of a family keeping its habits to itself. Install Scaredy Cat and it will blur horror before you see it, so you can read the plot first.
