The Hamiltons 2006

A suburban family harbors a dark secret: after their parents are killed in a tragic accident, eldest David, [Samuel Child], relocates the surviving siblings—Wendell, [Joseph McKelheer], Darlene, [Mackenzie Firgens], and Francis, [Cory Knauf]—to a quiet California suburb and takes on the heavy responsibility of caring for his orphaned teenage siblings. The move marks the start of a quiet, unsettling routine in a house that seems all too normal from the outside.

In the months that follow, Francis, who has inherited a video camera from his deceased parents, launches a school project about his own family. The camera becomes a silent observer, catching subtle, almost imperceptible deviations in the Hamilton household—details others might miss, but which begin to reveal a far more troubling truth. The world Francis records grows darker as the lens turns toward the hidden dynamics of his siblings and their strange, unspoken rituals. The camera’s perspective makes the family’s seemingly ordinary life feel increasingly claustrophobic, and the viewer starts to sense that something predatory and ancient is feeding off the surface calm.

Meanwhile, the adults’ outward stability masks a more complex web of motivations. David holds a steady job in a meat-packing warehouse, and the items he brings home from work hint at a private life that is equally ambiguous. There are suggestions of loneliness and longing as he invites male coworkers to spend evenings away from home, a detail that foreshadows the secrets simmering beneath the family’s veneer of normalcy.

The tension erupts when Wendell, driven by impulses that feel dangerously beside the point of human behavior, abducts two young girls he meets at a local bar and confines them in a storeroom. One girl dies after David drains her blood, a brutal act that shocks the household and sets off a chain reaction of guilt, fear, and escalating violence. Francis becomes drawn to the surviving girl, but the fragile balance within the house shatters as Wendell and Darlene murder another classmate and feed on her.

David’s attempt to protect the remaining girl leads to a tense confrontation, and Francis—which reveals a side of him that has long been kept in check—strikes back. He drags the girl to a hidden refuge at a closed meat-packing plant, where the old hunger grows uncontainable. As a dramatic moment unfolds in a barn-like space, Francis confronts the full weight of his nature, and when a wound on the girl’s hand catches his eye, his resolve collapses. The moment exposes fangs and a vampire’s hunger, and David’s arrival only deepens the sense that a monstrous inheritance has finally found its voice in Francis.

The family’s internal crisis becomes even more personal when David, unable to reconcile his brother’s transformation with his own protective instincts, tries to kill the other girl. Francis’s actions save her, but the cost is steep. Tears mingle with the realization that the blood-soaked truth is now undeniable: Francis is a vampire, and a new, more intimate understanding of the family’s thirst takes hold.

With the death of the classmate, the Hamiltons decide to relocate again—and this time the basement holds a chilling revelation: their little brother Lenny, kept hidden away, is not merely a secret kept from the world, but a tangible part of the family’s vampire fate. The discovery closes in on their bond and redefines where their loyalties lie.

What follows is a revelation that recontextualizes the Hamiltons as a distinct lineage: a new breed of vampires who are born into their condition, not made. They drift from place to place, carefully avoiding detection and seeking hidden corners where their hunger can be satisfied without drawing attention. In the final act, they introduce themselves to a new set of neighbors, presenting themselves as the Thompsons, a manufactured normalcy that belies a nocturnal reality. Francis—now fully embracing his vampire identity—records a happy, final family video, a crafted image of unity that hides an ongoing, insatiable thirst.

This story unfolds as a slow-burning blend of suburban quietness and impending danger, where the veneer of normalcy is punctured by a chilling legacy. The Hamiltons’ willingness to protect one another, even as their true nature reveals itself in bursts of violence, creates a tense, unsettling mood that lingers long after the credits roll.