In an effort/promise to promote female directors, writers, and actors of color Welcome to Blumhouse in partnership with Amazon has released 4 films with a variety of melanin at every corner or stories with female leads. I thank them and applaud them for their effort. I will never take that away.
Now let’s get to a review of one of their releases
Premise: A teenage girl with self-esteem issues finds confidence in the most unlikely way, by spending her summer battling vampires that prey on New Orleans’ disenfranchised with the help of her best friend, the boy she’s always pined for, and a peculiar rich girl. (Google)
What I Liked: With such a young and diverse cast, it hard not to immediately think of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Even our wonderfully resourceful, Shawna, played by Ashja Cooper, jokes about this in one of her narrative dialogues only we the audience can hear. Think Moesha but with wooden stakes and industrial sized garlic powder.
I’m awed by how progressive this feels. There’s a single dad raising two teen children. There’s issues of pain and grieving still over the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Drug Addiction and the gentrification of housing townships/projects. Black girls with issues of colorism. There’s so much that can tie together and of course vampires would feast on all this chaos.
What I Didn’t Like: This should’ve been a television series, but because it wasn’t, it’s hard to cram everything into an hour and a half. Although a bit juvenile at times, there’s just enough character development to make it a complete movie. There are however plot holes and the dreaded expository flash black/story telling that makes me scratch my head. It doesn’t always tie together but leaves me wanting more.
Verdict: This is probably one of the strongest of the Blumhouse collection this year. It’s creative and unique and a spin on the vampire genre that hasn’t been seen before. It has the awareness to be witty and action-packed so that many audiences could enjoy. It’s definitely a must watch. It’s streaming on Amazon Prime with Subscription.
Stay Ghoulish!