Intensity 🩸out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize
The title, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human, explicitly states the movie’s theme. Sasha is a young vampire who cannot develop her fangs because she has empathy for her potential victims and refuses to kill. Her family is concerned that this jeopardizes the family lineage and legacy and urges her to make her first kill. She meets Paul, a boy with suicidal wishes, and considers him as her first kill and a humane one. This movie does all the little things right and, consequentially, nails the big things.
At the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, festival director Michael Lerman informed the audience that this film was near and dear to the festival. This is a French-Canadian horror rom-com, making it a rare genre gem. It is also a prime example of how to create a resonant horror rom-com, making it among the rarest of rare feature films.
Films like this benefitted from the American Union strikes from the writers and acting guild, which put many films on hold last year, forcing festivals and cinemas to look to other markets for programming. Of the seventeen narrative feature films at the festival this year, only six of them were American productions. Last year, Australian-made films made a splash at Overlook. An argument could be made that this year, Canada provided some of the best movies at the festival. In addition to this film, Red Rooms and In a Violent Nature made a splash at Overlook.
What makes Humanistic Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human so special isn’t the title (though… yeah, it is a little) but the wonderful cast of characters.
The Cast:
- Sara Montpetit plays Sasha, a gifted musician and a reluctant young vampire.
- Félix-Antoine Bénard plays Paul, a bullied teenager considering suicide.
- Steve Laplante plays Aurélien, Sasha’s sympathetic father and her biggest advocate.
- Sophie Cadieux plays Georgette, Sasha’s mother, who is weary of Sasha’s empathy for humans.
- Noémie O’Farrell plays Denise, Sasha’s embittered cousin.
- Gabriel-Antoine Roy plays J.P., a loser bro-dude vampire turned by Denise.
- Arnaud Vachon plays Henry, Paul’s bully and tormentor at their bowling alley job.
- Lilas Rose-Cantin plays young Sasha, who was an innocent and enthusiastic young girl.
A Short Synopsis of Humanistic Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human
We are introduced to Sasha as a little girl on her birthday with her family. She is given an electronic keyboard and is instantly attuned to it, playing a complex orchestral piece straight away. This stuns her parents, as they have never given her any lessons. It’s a bit of a clue for what is to come. Sasha is MUCH older than she appears to be and would have time to learn music in her spare decades. Her next present is more exciting. A birthday clown arrives as a gift to perform at her party. The family doesn’t find the clown particularly funny, except Sasha, who is delighted. Unfortunately for the clown, he wasn’t actually brought to the party to entertain but to be a meal. This is a family of vampires, and they greedily attack the clown, much to Sasha’s dismay.
Fast forward a decade or so, and Sasha is now a teenager, and her fangs still have not dropped. Humans in fear should trigger the fangs, but it won’t work for Sasha. She cares too much for humans and has survived off of sucking on blood baggies stored in the refrigerator. Out of frustration, Georgette announces that her daughter will stay with her older cousin Denise, where she can learn how to be a proper vampire. Denise is none too happy about this, but it has been determined that this is essential for the legacy and continuity of the bloodline. Georgette insists she has borne too much of the hunting responsibilities, and it is now time for Sasha to pull her weight in the family hunting tradition.
Denise drags Sasha on a failed hunt, which turns disastrous due to Sasha’s interference. Sasha alerts the neighborhood, interrupting Denise mid-bite. Instead of being a snack, Denise’s dim-witted victim, JP, instead becomes a vampire bonded to Denise. Whoops! They need to find Sasha some easier… or compliant… prey.
Paul would be easy pickings. He’s a timid teenager, bullied by his co-workers and schoolmates, and suffers being the victim of pranks and incessant insults. Paul contemplates jumping off a building, but Henry goads him down from his perch. Sasha sees this, and considers that this may be her lucky break. When she approaches Paul, her fangs drop. She panics and flees the scene. But after some consideration, how can she feel guilty about killing someone if they want to kill themselves? She spots a suicide crisis group flier and decides to attend.
Paul also goes to the therapy session, and they connect. Paul wants to exit this world, and Sasha wants a guilt-free meal, if for no other reason to get her family off her back. It seems like a win-win situation, and the two of them head to Denise’s urban loft to do the deed. It all seems set up just right, much to Denise’s relief. Paul is ready. Sasha is ALMOST ready and offers Paul a death wish. This scene mimics many a teen comedy lose-your-virginity sequence, but the stakes are much higher. It’s played with similar awkward glee.
Is there anything that you want to do before you die? Paul considers this, and he wants to “Cut Henry a new one” after all of his bullying. But first, they need some practice. So, they set off on a set things right mission. It is a great opportunity that most of us will never get or are not brave enough to do. It is an opportunity to say everything you need without repercussions or consequences because it will all be over soon.
Sasha and Paul prepare to send Paul off in a blaze of glory, but it won’t be easy. First, Henry isn’t an easy mark. He and his goons are physically more than a match for these two unless Sasha goes full vampire. And… they are falling in love. You might see how this will transpire, but it is worth the process.
Evaluation of Humanistic Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human:
I am smitten with this movie. Sasha and Paul are perfectly cast, and their stories are humorous, enchanting, and compelling. The supporting cast each has perfectly timed comic moments. The theme of “the vampire family that kills together stays together ” reminds me of What We Do in the Shadows. The film approaches the humor more sweetly and less wacky in this film, but it is still laugh-out-loud funny.
This is also an excellent representation of bullying in horror movies. It might be a bit problematic that Paul turns to suicide as an option, but it does explore the toxic tendency of bullies to pile on. It isn’t just Henry that pushes Paul. Once the target is placed, it provides cover and allowance for others to pick on him, too. The authorities who could manage this behavior also failed Paul. A broken support structure failed him as well. Fortunately, in this story, Paul’s mother is a loving and understanding mom, though she is a late-shift nurse and often not around enough.
Sasha’s family bullies her as well, if a bit more passively. Her family exerts undue pressure on her to conform and be a vampire. Her family considers her to be immature even though she is 65 years old. Granted, Sasha is a bit of a passive layabout, but her situation is akin to that of the over-protected, home-schooled kid who never got a chance to get out in the community, let alone the world. She busks for change as a street-side musician, but her worldview still feels very small.
Humanistic Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human shines through with excellent comic timing. The eye acting, with Montpietit and Bernard, is wonderful to watch. These are very easy characters to root for. Though shot largely in darkness, the movie crackles with undead life. The sets are wonderfully evocative, particularly Denise’s flat. The script and editing lead the audience through the story well. As I mentioned earlier, it’s all in the details. All the small elements in the acting and the production design are on point.
One gift of this movie to the vampire canon: normal human food is deadly to vampires, not just garlic.
Conclusion:
This movie debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, and it deserves to be a Canadian film national treasure. It has been playing on the film festival circuit for several months, but no wide release or streaming date has been set.
This rivals Extra Ordinary for the best Horror Rom-Com I’ve seen. Horror romances are more common, but that added comedy element requires a delicate touch, and this succeeded magnificently here. This also has the underdog foreign horror-comedy spirit of One Cut of the Dead. I’m unsure how successful this will be in the US market since it is in French, with English subtitles. I hope that the amount of foreign streaming content has gotten people over the subtitle issue. Unless you can’t read, there shouldn’t be a problem. And, if you can’t read, you won’t be reading this review.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Human does not carry an MPAA Rating. A PG-13 rating would be appropriate. The violence is non-bloody, and there is no sex or nudity, with minimal naughty language. Suicide, however, is a serious subject, and though it takes the topic lightly, it may be sensitive to some.
If you find this film playing at your local independent cinema, support this film!