Vampire stories have one thing or another in them: (almost) all of them, for one reason or another, are lured into them. In my case, above all Those who have managed to find some contemporary twists on the myth. And so it was last year, when I saw – with similar anticipation – Nosferatu By Robert Eggers I appreciate the honor Both Bram Stoker’s novel and Murnau’s filmI was interested in the performance of Lily-Rose Depp (and of course the presence of Willem Dafoe), the subtle aesthetics of the nineteenth century and the encounter, in the protagonist, with the appeal of the supernatural with the traits of those who later became Freud’s “hysterics.” But what can I say, thinking about something interesting is not the same as enjoying it. Follower Dracula By Luc Besson (another remake of previous films, in this case the one shot by Coppola in 1992), for the time being, I preferred to abstain.
It has just the right doses of gothic touches, humor, and something not common in this type of story: tenderness.
Then, a few days ago, I discovered a film that I approached almost without expectations and that ended up confirming a certain arbitrary and subjective rule: the less pompous, freer from the canons of the genre and more modest in production conditions, the more attractive the vampire story is.
The movie I’m talking about is A human vampire seeking suicide, Canadian director Ariane Louise’s debut feature, which can currently be watched on Netflix, contains just the right doses of gothic touches, humor, and something uncommon in this type of story: tenderness.
A human vampire seeking suicide It’s a teenage love story (somewhat reminiscent of the Nordics Let me in(Although that film’s approach, beautiful and sweet, was much harsher.) The heroes of the Canadian film couldn’t be more adorable. There’s Sasha, a beautiful goth girl with straight, dark hair, skin devoid of any trace of sun exposure, soft manners and a raw sadness. Although she is beloved by her vampire family, Sasha puts her lineage’s patience to the limit: she neither likes nor can kill; Every time the possibility of sinking its teeth into prey arises, its fangs simply do not appear.
He does not like life; She dreams of one day being able to see the sun. He made several suicide attempts. For her, giving up human blood was equivalent to letting herself slowly starve to death.
On the other hand, there is Paul, a shy teenager who does not adapt to the human environment like Sasha does to the vampire environment. He does not like life; She dreams of one day being able to see the sun. He made several suicide attempts. For her, giving up human blood was equivalent to letting herself slowly starve to death. They both coincide in a session (at night, of course) of a suicide self-help group. Each one in turn says the strange word. They look at each other. They understand each other. love.
Ariane Luis Saez’s great success is to avoid any invitation to tragedy. Its creatures deal with problems that aren’t exactly small, but the film achieves a light tone without becoming trite. It’s not easy.
Humor, sprinkled judiciously, helps. Sasha and Paul’s families, each with their own dilemmas, are as dysfunctional as most families can be in this day and age. Teenagers are experiencing an existential dilemma that they usually only encounter at that age.. There are no evil or manipulative people in this story. Only beings (human and non-human, adults and youth) do the best they can to be in this world. And so they make mistakes, they are clumsy, insecure, sometimes short-tempered, and sometimes deeply loving (just follow the gestures of the vampire father in front of his “different” daughter).
You can edit the beginning of this column and say so startup stories, Coming-of-age storiesthey have I don’t know what it is. Even though those who saw them have long since left the time of the beginning, something of them touches a certain weak tissue that remains in the heart.