After a series of internationally acclaimed short films, director Ariane Louis-Seize presents an astonishing first feature film Humanistic vampire seeks consenting suicide, a funny, cheerfully unconventional and sometimes even touching black comedy.
The film begins with a birthday party for young Sasha, who receives a visit from a clown as a gift. But we quickly understand that the friendly entertainer isn’t there to make Sasha laugh. Instead, the girl’s parents hired him to allow Sasha to use her vampire fangs for the first time…
A few years later we find Sasha (played by Sara Montpetit). She is now 68 years old (the age of adolescence for a vampire!) and is more worried than ever about her parents (Sophie Cadieux and Steve Laplante) because she still cannot bite and her survival is therefore at risk. The problem is that her vampire fangs still haven’t grown because she feels too much compassion for humans.
One evening while wandering the streets, Sasha meets Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a teenager living with suicidal thoughts. What if this Paul agreed to become his first victim?
A beautiful melancholy
Through the bold mix of black comedy and initiation story, director Ariane Louis-Seize and her co-writer Christine Doyon have created a unique and charming work that revisits the codes of the vampire film with absurd and delicious dry humor. Don’t look for a scene where the blood flows freely. Humanistic vampire seeking consenting suicide results in more melancholy than blood.
The film’s great strength lies in the way it tackles the usual themes of coming-of-age stories (self-affirmation, friendship, parent-teen conflict) through vampire characters who ultimately have similar problems as humans.
Ariane Louis-Seize also managed the feat of giving these characters a strangely endearing touch. Sara Montpetit (Maria Chapdelaine) wonderfully slips into the skin of a fragile and sensitive young vampire. Félix-Antoine Bénard (Comme des têtes pas de Poule) also shows great accuracy in portraying a teenager in deep depression.
We would be remiss not to highlight the amusing performances of the film’s supporting cast, from Sophie Cadieux to Marie Brassard, Steve Laplante and Noémie O’Farrell. The latter also turns out to be particularly entertaining in the form of a resourceful vampire… and very hungry!
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Humanistic Vampire Seeks Consensual Suicide, a film by Ariane Louis-Seize with Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Sophie Cadieux and Steve Laplante. On the screen.