Québécois filmmaker Ariana Louis-Seize’s French-language rom-com, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, bears a lot in common with offbeat vampire features like What We Do in the Shadows and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The absurdly long title, of course, is one of the more obvious commonalities, but it’s also in the quirky lead protagonist with a staunch moral center and a bewitching sense of humor.
While that means that Louis-Seize’s feature debut isn’t forging new ground, it makes up for that with an overabundance of wholesome charm.
We meet Sasha (Lilas-Rose Cantin) as a young vampire on her birthday, where her doting father (Steve LaPlante) and more prudent mother (Sophie Cadieux) worry about their daughter’s empathy problem during a clown’s performance. Most parents would be proud to have such a sensitive child who’s deeply concerned with the wellbeing of others, but most parents aren’t vampires trying to raise their children to fend for themselves. The clown’s birthday party appearance ends in a feeding frenzy that leaves Sasha traumatized, and she grows into adulthood so afraid to harm others that she’s unable to spring her fangs and feeds exclusively on blood bags.
Considering Sasha (Sara Montpetit) is now 62 years old with the fresh face of a teen, her empathy problem forces her parents to cut off her blood supply in the hopes she’ll finally learn to hunt. Then she notices the suicidal Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a lonely teen who may hold the answers to both of their problems in life.
While Paul’s eagerness to leave this mortal coil makes for an easy solution to Sasha’s ethical feeding issue, the pair instead forge an unlikely friendship that blossoms into something more. Louis-Seize, who co-wrote the screenplay with Christine Doyon, evokes an almost Tim Burton-esque sense of gothic whimsy that lightens the existential themes and lets the quirkiness of its characters shine brightest. There’s a moodiness to the color palette, with Shawn Pavlin’s crisp cinematography complimenting the fog-swept darkness that juxtaposes the narrative’s lightheartedness with effortless style. And as stylish as Humanist Vampire is, it also works in favor of the comedy.
Sasha lives in a world that makes it look cool to be a vampire, yet she runs from any situation where death could become a likely reality. Sara Montpetit infuses Sasha with the appropriate blend of awkward teen and quirky cool girl, instilling easy rooting interest. Félix-Antoine Bénard is also winsome as the timid Paul, whose heart is as big as his desire to be done with living. Though it’s Noémie O’Farrell who steals every scene as Sasha’s pushy cousin Denise, a savvy vamp determined to teach Sasha self-reliance no matter how much it backfires on her.
Morose topics of death and suicide are handled with genteel care, as Sasha and Paul navigate their new relationship as it sparks their glum lives to life. It’s a sweet and wholesome coming-of-age rom com centered around individuality, but one that isn’t interested in wading too deep into vampire lore or even the loftier themes it dabbles with.
It’s a stylish, cute date night feature, as fangless and lovely as its central vampire.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person opens in NYC and LA theaters on June 21, followed by a nationwide rollout.
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