‘In Our Blood’ Theories, Meaning, Explanation, and Themes

I give found footage movies a lot of grace when I review or analyze them. I started trying to type out some academic sounding explanation as to why, but really, I just love them — even though they’re often bad.

So, when a new found footage movie comes along and is actually good, I get excited. That’s what happened with In Our Blood.

So, let’s break it down. Here’s my analysis of In Our Blood.

Screenshot from “In Our Blood” trailer.

Top Theories About the Meaning and Themes of ‘In Our Blood’ (2025)

1. The Inheritance of Trauma

Theory: The film symbolizes how familial trauma and addiction are passed down through generations — “in our blood.” Emily’s search for her missing mother mirrors her search for understanding the cycles that shaped both of them.

• Why It Fits:
  • The title directly suggests something hereditary or unavoidable. As Emily retraces her mother’s history, she confronts parts of herself she’s inherited — emotionally, psychologically, maybe even chemically.
• Key Moments:
  • Emily reviewing old footage where her mother seems lucid but haunted; parallels between Emily’s behaviors and her mother’s past addictions; Danny noticing Emily’s slow unraveling as the line between filmmaker and subject dissolves.

2. The Documentary as Exorcism

Theory: The film represents the dangerous illusion that creating art about pain can cleanse it. Emily believes the documentary will help her reconcile with her mother, but in reality, it summons the ghosts she hoped to exorcise.

• Why It Fits:
  • The act of filming is both literal and symbolic — the camera becomes a mirror that reflects unresolved grief rather than healing it. Emily’s pursuit of truth blurs into obsession, suggesting that documentation can trap rather than free.
• Key Moments:
  • Emily continuing to film even as her mother disappears; the camera capturing disturbing coincidences; a final moment where Emily watches herself on screen, unable to distinguish art from life.

3. Addiction as a Family Myth

Theory: The story reframes addiction as a mythic curse — something woven into family legend and identity. Emily’s film becomes an archaeological dig through this myth, revealing how stories of “who we are” can perpetuate pain.

• Why It Fits:
  • The mother’s past addictions are treated as artifacts of a shared mythology, shaping how Emily perceives her own fate. The search becomes an attempt to rewrite that family myth into something redemptive.
• Key Moments:
  • Old interviews or home videos where addiction is rationalized or romanticized; Emily confronting family members who repeat the same stories about her mother; the moment she realizes she’s internalized those stories herself.

4. The Vanishing of the Self

Theory: The mother’s disappearance represents the dissolution of identity — both hers and Emily’s. The more Emily searches, the more she realizes that neither of them can be “found” through film, because the camera erases as much as it reveals.

• Why It Fits:
  • The act of filming is often about control, but Emily’s loss of control mirrors the way memory and addiction distort truth. Her mother’s physical disappearance mirrors Emily’s emotional one.
• Key Moments:
  • The camera picking up reflections of Emily instead of her mother; scenes where recorded voices contradict the visuals; a final ambiguity suggesting both women have “vanished” into their own narratives.

5. Art as Bloodline

Theory: “In Our Blood” may also describe creativity — the drive to turn life into story. Emily’s film about her mother becomes a commentary on how artists exploit pain to create meaning, and how that very instinct connects generations.

• Why It Fits:
  • Emily’s pursuit of the documentary parallels her mother’s own creative impulses (perhaps her mother once painted, wrote, or filmed). Their bond is artistic as much as genetic — an inheritance of expression and destruction.
• Key Moments:
  • Discovering her mother’s unfinished creative work; Emily realizing her film continues her mother’s legacy; a closing scene where the act of creation itself feels like a haunting.

Key Themes in ‘In Our Blood’

Memory and Reconstruction

The film explores how memory distorts truth. As Emily revisits fragments of her mother’s life, every recollection feels edited — shaped by guilt, nostalgia, or denial. The act of piecing together who someone was becomes an unreliable process, suggesting that remembering can be a creative, even dangerous act.

Moral Boundaries of Filmmaking

In Our Blood questions how far a documentarian should go in pursuit of “truth.” Emily’s emotional connection to her subject — her own mother — forces her to confront exploitation, privacy, and whether honesty in art justifies intrusion into another’s pain.

Search for Identity

Emily’s investigation into her mother’s disappearance mirrors her search for herself. As she uncovers her mother’s secrets, she realizes her identity has been built from fragments of her mother’s unresolved past, raising the question of whether selfhood is ever truly independent.

Cycles of Dependence

The film extends addiction beyond substances — portraying dependency as emotional, relational, and even creative. Emily’s fixation on completing her film becomes its own form of addiction, suggesting that obsession can be inherited in unexpected forms.

The Illusion of Closure

Despite its structure as a mystery, In Our Blood denies neat resolution. The closer Emily gets to answers, the less they satisfy. The theme of elusive closure highlights how grief and loss are processes without definitive endings — only shifting understandings.

Plot Summary

• Year Released: 2025
• Director: Pedro Kos
• Writer: Mallory Westfall
• Story By: Steven Klein, Aaron Kogan & Clay Tweel

Filmmaker Emily Wyland sets out to reconnect with her estranged mother by filming a documentary about her life and recovery from addiction. When her mother suddenly vanishes, Emily and her cinematographer, Danny, follow traces of her past — from abandoned homes to old acquaintances — uncovering painful histories that blur truth and memory. As Emily’s search grows more obsessive, the documentary transforms into a personal reckoning with generational trauma, artistic boundaries, and the haunting inheritance that binds mother and daughter.

Movies Like ‘In Our Blood’

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The Lost Daughter (2021)

A woman’s seaside vacation is disrupted by memories of her own failings as a mother, exploring guilt, inherited emotional wounds, and the blurred line between empathy and judgment.

—> Watch The Lost Daughter online.

Relic (2020)

Three generations of women confront a decaying family home — and each other — in a haunting metaphor for memory, aging, and the transmission of trauma.

—> Watch Relic online.

Stories We Tell (2012)

Sarah Polley’s hybrid documentary unravels her family’s hidden past, examining how storytelling and memory shape identity and truth.

—> Watch Stories We Tell online.

Aftersun (2022)

A daughter reflects on a childhood vacation with her troubled father, piecing together who he was through fragmented memories and emotional distance.

—> Watch Aftersun online.

Honey Boy (2019)

Written by Shia LaBeouf, this semi-autobiographical film depicts an actor’s turbulent relationship with his father, capturing cycles of pain, addiction, and artistic self-destruction.

—> Watch Honey Boy online.

The Tale (2018)

A filmmaker reexamines a story she once told herself about her childhood, confronting buried trauma and the power — and danger — of narrative reconstruction.

—> Watch The Tale online.

Pieces of a Woman (2020)

After a devastating loss, a woman navigates grief and fractured family ties, illustrating how personal tragedy reshapes identity and connection.

Clean (2004)

A woman tries to rebuild her life and regain custody of her son after her partner’s overdose, reflecting on redemption, relapse, and inherited cycles of addiction.

—> Watch Clean online.

Have Your Own ‘In Our Blood’ Theory?

Well, I liked it. I wonder what you thought, though.

Any deeper thoughts or theories about In Our Blood you care to share with the class?

In case it isn’t clear, the “class” is in the comments below.

😱