It's been a whole year since I've done a review on this blog, and nearly two since my last vampire film, but it's Halloween week in 2020, and there have been a few fascinating new vampire movies that have been released in the past few years, so I figured it was time for a return to Fangtastic Films reviews!
Vampire films, and horror films in general, are often a commentary on their time and context, and so perhaps it is no wonder that in a time of historic Black Lives Matter protests, gentrification, and rising housing costs in cities, we have movies like The Transfiguration (2017) and Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020).
In many ways, these movies are polar opposites: one is an achingly tragic indie drama and the other is a comedy from a director and writer at Saturday Night Live. One is full of shaky cam and muted tones, while the other is brightly colored and polished.
However, both movies also follow adolescent boys in inner-city communities in New York, each acknowledge the dangers and draw of gang activity in these communities, address how policing isn't trusted in the community, acknowledge the racial and socio-economic make-up of these neighborhoods, and use vampirism as as symbol for who has and doesn't have power in the community.
Both are also really great films... with some notable flaws that make them less than perfect.
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The Transfiguration (2017) follows protagonist Milo, a boy who lives in Far Rockaway, a housing project in Queens, New York. Orphaned by a suicidal mother, Milo lives with his older brother Lewis, a depressed military vet who is emotionally distant from his brother and spends all his time on the couch watching TV. Milo himself is socially awkward and has clearly been living with layers of trauma, both from his mother's death and the constant threat of danger in his community. His days are spent trying to avoid run-ins with gang members, while his nights are filled with the careful study of horrifyingly violent nature videos and vampire books and movies.
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| Good taste, Milo! You would like my movie blog... |
As Milo is treated more like prey than a predator by his peers, he studies and takes notes on how to be a predator himself, and he becomes obsessed with being a "realistic" vampire who can prey on others.
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| He has at least five of these vampire rules notebooks |
Milo's decent into planned vampirism is momentarily interrupted by his meeting of a girl named Sophie, a troubled teen herself who lives with her abusive grandfather and who often turns to alcohol, self-harm, and risky behavior to manage her own pain and depression.
The Transfiguration is really about how trauma, on the macro and micro level, is transforming and damaging. This is one of the few vampire movies where the "horror" can more likely have been solved with good therapy and social services rather than garlic and a crucifix.
That's not to say that garlic and crucifixes aren't mentioned. Michael O'Shea, the writer and director of the film, is clearly passionate about the vampire genre, and the conversations between Milo and Sophie about different depictions of vampires in media are often the most enjoyable and sweet moments of the film, even if there is the underlying tension and dramatic irony of the audience knowing that Milo's dedication to "realism" in the vampire genre is because he is trying to follow the "real" path of a vampire himself:
This is Michael O'Shea's debut feature film, and he does an excellent job setting tone and mood. The soundtrack is sparse and minimalist, and the light shaky-cam throughout the film keeps even the most tranquil of moments feeling slightly uneasy or unbalanced. Settings are filled with abandoned couches, run-down laundromats, dark bodegas, and fluorescent-lit check cashing lines. With framing and tension, O'Shea manages to make these daily urban settings feel as unsettling as any Transylvanian setting in a Dracula film, even in the daytime.
Which brings me to the main problem with this film. Some people have been critical of the racial politics of this film, since O'Shea is a white director making a film that portrays the projects (with majority Black residents) near Queens as oppressively dangerous, dark, and somber. While I believe in O'Shea's best intentions, and he did grow up near this neighborhood in Queens, NY and has said that he brought his personal experience to this film, I found myself wondering as I watched how this movie's tone would have felt differently if it was directed or written by a person of color and a member of the community that was actually being portrayed.
Some critics have gone further to say that Milo's character (specifically his emotional "coldness," vampirism, and obsession with nature's predators) is "racist" because of the Super Predator language of the 1990s, and I do want to stress that I think that argument doesn't feel accurate to me. Milo is shown as much a victim in this movie as a threat, and, despite his awkwardness and attempts to act emotionless, the film makes it clear that he has deep feelings, pain, trauma, and empathy. I think the depiction of the projects as a whole is a fair reason to feel a little hesitant about the messaging of this movie, but I found Milo to be sympathetic and a protagonist you can't but help but feel deep emotions for in the best way. He is a round, complicated, and complete character in my view.
Even with the implied and potentially problematic social and political message about the projects being dark and crime/trauma filled, this film is beautiful, painful, and an excellent character portrait of how trauma itself can be a vampire, sucking the life, opportunities, and happiness from people until there's almost nothing left.
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On the other hand, Vampires vs. the Bronx (2020) is a love-letter to the neighborhood of its setting. SNL-veteran director Oz Rodriguez is proud of his Dominican roots in the Bronx, and it shows through the movie's use of BRIGHT bright colors, banter between neighbors, close-ups of food, and daily bodega scenes; every moment of the community scenes in this movie show a neighborhood that is lively, special, and worth protection. Some of the scenes in this movie really reminded me more of In the Heights than a horror-comedy movie.
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| Fighting vampires and fighting to save the bodega |
Like O'Shea, Rodriguez clearly knows and loves vampire stories, but I did find it especially interesting which stories and roles were prioritized in each movie. While Milo in The Transfiguration watches movies with white vampires to learn how to be the oppressive predator, the boys in Vampires vs. the Bronx watch the movie Blade to learn to be protectors and are inspired by watching a movie featuring a strong vampire slayer of color. "We're Blades!" Miguel declares proudly as he and his friends move in on a plan to enter what they think is the vampires' lair.
This movie is fun, colorful, and funny, but it's also not without flaws. Even under 90 minutes, the movie dragged a bit in the last half, as the vampire hunting and resolution were both fairly boiler plate and predictable. Also, the vampires were... kind of lame? They looked very similar to the vampires from the Buffy and Angel television series, which is fairly unfortunate as those character designs were some of the weakest aspects of those shows. Also, it never feels like the protagonist group are in any real danger, as the vampires in every action scene mug and monologue so much that the children always have time to come up with a plan to escape or defeat them without much tension.
That said, Vampires vs. The Bronx feels like it's supposed to be essentially a "kids" movie in the vein of Fright Night or similar 80s/90s action-horror-comedy movies, and it overall is more fun, heartwarming, and successful than not.
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I think both The Transfiguration and Vampires vs. The Bronx are great additions to the vampire movie canon as a whole; while very different, they both have something interesting to say and feature settings, protagonist(s), and struggles that are unique in the vampire-horror genre. I'd recommend checking them both out, though maybe on different days because of their drastically different moods and tones.
Rating for both (very different) movies: 4 out of 5 bites
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