Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person Review | Straight to the Heart

A darkly comedic, but playful and uniquely heartwarming genre mash-up, Quebecois filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize’s first feature Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person holds a lot of unexpected delights for anyone willing to go along with the titular premise. Part teenage drama, part rom-com, and part horror movie, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a confident, refined, and engaging piece of work that never shies away from its obvious influences, while constantly forging an emotional path all its own. Every time viewers think they might have a handle on the tone of Seize’s film, the director and co-writer tweaks things ever so slightly to start things down a different emotional road. But instead of feeling scattershot and chaotic, and despite what the title might suggest, this thing is a low key crowd pleaser.

Sasha (Sara Montpetit) is a vampire with a unique problem that could put her life in danger. She looks like a teenager, but is actually in her mid-60s. She lives with her fellow vampire parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux), a flirty, worldly cousin (Noémie O’Farrell), and her traditionalist aunt (Marie Brassard). The family is starting to get concerned about Sasha’s eating habits. Sasha has no real prey drive, refusing to hunt down humans and drain them of their blood. Thanks in part to mom being fed up with constantly having to hunt for her daughter, Sasha is shown some tough love and is forced to learn how to survive on her own. Sasha discovers that her problem lies in the fact that she only desires to hunt once she has established an empathetic connection to a potential victim. This leads to a chance encounter with Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a downtrodden teenager looking to end it all. He’s constantly bullied at school and at his soul crushing job at the local bowling alley, and he feels at a distance from his hard working mother. In Paul, Sasha finds an unlikely friend and food source who’s willing to give up his life for her survival. Developing feelings for Paul, Sasha agrees to grant him a dying wish before they go through with her feeding.

Obviously, it’s not easy to build a feel good movie around something as bleak as teenage suicide, but Seize has found a way to pull it off through building relatable characters worthy of plenty of good will. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is built on the strength of the bonds shared between characters. Sasha’s family is fascinatingly normal and average when one subtracts the fact that they’re all vampires. They inhabit a subculture not too far removed from that of the humans they hunt, and the problems they try to work through are only a few degrees away from what “normal” families experience all the time. Sasha’s questioning of her own identity is a key part of growing up and old, while Paul’s struggles are a result of constant psychological suffering that young people can relate to. Paul might not actually be suicidal, but like a lot of teens in his position, he feels tormented and unable to escape.

These relationships have a decidedly lived in and reasoned quality, and Seize and co-writer Christine Doyon allow them to play out as if nothing is amiss or unusual about them. It’s an inspired choice that allows the material to feel irreverent without layering on the type of forced quirkiness that becomes a crutch to lesser filmmakers with similarly high concept ideas. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person never becomes much of a laugh riot or scare fest, instead finding a balance with the employment of sharp, witty writing, some light slapstick, and astute bits of production design. It’s a film that never strays too far in one direction, but also never betrays its characters.

The suspense in Seize’s work is also not much for nail biting, but more about raising questions about Sasha and Paul’s relationship. What do you do if the one friend you’ve ever made in life also wants to kill you? Given their highly emotional states, who is having bigger second thoughts about going through with this plan? In the early stages of their bonding, one initially wonders if Sasha’s unique approach to “hunting” is coming from a place of love or cruelty, but that nicely comes into sharper focus the longer that bond is forged. Is Sasha actually more traumatized than Paul, and does she similarly feel suicidal, but in a different way? All of these questions are examined with kindness and a surprising amount of empathy by Seize, who shows a clear amount of love for her characters.

Montpetit, who recently delivered equally memorable turns in both Falcon Lake and Maria Chapdelaine, makes the case for being one of the most magnetic, charismatic, and versatile performers working in Canada today, here getting a chance to dabble in more comedic territory. Montpetit’s chemistry with Bénard is lovely to behold, making them a couple worth rooting for, no matter what turns their characters’ relationship may take. Across the board, all of the actors approach the material with an open mind and help to make the concept all the more believable and well rounded, but it’s Montpetit who truly provides the film with a unique moral anchor and compass.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has all the hallmarks of a movie destined to become a cult favourite among outsider teens searching for their own place in the world, but the morality and concepts in play should make it a pleasing watch for anyone willing to get past the title. Those willing to take a chance on it will be treated to a delightful surprise that finds some lovely pockets of warmth and understanding amidst all the darkness on display. It keeps the viewer constantly guessing, not out of fear or bewilderment, but rather out of awe. It’s amazing just how realistic Seize is able to make a concept this unusual feel to a casual viewer.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person opens in select Canadian theatres starting on Friday, October 13, 2023, including TIFF Bell Lightbox (with a live, virtual Q&A with Ariane Louis-Seize following the 7:30pm screening on October 13) and The Revue in Toronto. It also opens at select theatres in Montreal, St. Catherines, Victoria, Sudbury, and Ottawa the same day. It expands to Vancouver on October 20, and Waterloo on November 3.