31 Days of Halloween: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

2023, Bomani J Story (feature debut) -- download

You can tell from the get go that Bomani J Story doesn't want his directorial debut to pigeon hole him into  the horror genre. It starts agnostically, with strong characters and music choices that could squarely place it into the type of intentional indie movies I often pine for, but really, don't watch all that much anymore. This is a very deliberate movie, both as a Frankenstein adaptation (inspired by?) and as a commentary on growing up black in America.

That last bit, I find it challenging to write about. I often wonder if I have the right to comment on it, but to not do so, to only tell the movie from its purest horror movie elements, would do it injustice. This movie is nothing without its setting and characters. So, I will do what I always end up doing, which is write only from my perspective, as its really all I have.

Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes, The Equalizer TV) is a teen girl obsessed with death. As the movie relates, she heard her mother's last heart beat, as the two were sitting, hugging, and her mother was struck by a stray bullet. Her neighbourhood, a "project" of sorts, not as urban and without the towers, is still very much a place where people who cannot afford to be elsewhere, go. It is controlled by the gangs, and if pop culture educates me properly, the "bloods" as defined by the red bandanas. The death continues as her older brother joins the gang and is shot down. In his grief, her father falls to using crack in the little time he has between working two jobs. Vicaria strives to excel, attending a local "white school" in order to benefit from STEM resources, but is far too strong-headed for the teachers. If she was white, they would jokingly dismiss her constant banter about curing death, and move on. But no, she gets to sent to detention, and when she protests, she is slammed to the ground by the rent-a-cop.

This is Vicaria's world. Its not pleasant, and it has had more than a little impact on her mental state.

She literally believes death can be cured, and goes all mad scientist in a nearby abandoned building is doing something with dead bodies, including that of her brother. On another night of stray bullets, as she watches them unsuccessfully try to resuscitate a young boy she is inspired as to what she needs for her resurrection ritual -- electricity. We will forgive this conceit for even if this isn't a world where Mary Shelley wrote a story, Vicaria should have seen electric cardiac stimulation before. But no matter, she takes down her local grid and zaps the fuck out of her dead brother.

Man, the practical effects team here won the day! From the Dr. Frankenstein gurney made of an old door and bicycle parts, to the utterly gruesome monster that her brother becomes!!

Chris wakes up, but holey Hell is her horrific! This is not the cliche "she dug up fresh bodies" tale of Frankenstein, but a long in the ground decaying body who did not get proper mortuary care. A monster indeed !! But Vicaria is not afraid of him until he grasps her leaving burns/marks that left me wondering if he came back from the other side with.. other powers. But no, its more a Mark of the Dead and while Vicaria did bring him back out of grief, and for revenge, when she sees him try to murder one of the runners who supply the community with drugs, she feels instant regret.

This is where the tale turns. Vicaria has created a monster and seemingly only wants to avoid her mistake, not expecting the terrible events that would unfurl after. And it all goes so terribly, horrifically wrong for her and her family. She becomes the instrument of her own tragedy, and the further degradation of her own mental state.

Spoiler.

The movie ends as Chris / The Monster has murdered not only the drug dealers in the neighbourhood but also all of Vicaria's extended family. The Monster does what a monster does. But Vicaria has a light bulb moment, and ... well, she resurrects all of them, including her pregnant cousin. Its chilling. Its repellant. They may have been "fresh" but... what else has happened to them? What else will they become? What will be the final consequences of Vicaria's actions?

For me, the movie kind of lost it in the final act. In much the way Vicaria loses control of her creation, in honesty she never had it, the story seems to be abandon its creator, escaping something poetic and creative for something more visceral and schlocky. While I like the movie so much more than much of the dross we end up watching during this season (a necessary act, to find the gems), I am somewhat disappointed he lost the thread of his own adapted tale.