Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Written by Christine Doyon and Ariane Louis-Seize
Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize
Starring Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux
Language spoken French
Runtime 1 hour and 30 minutes
Opens in New York and Los Angeles June 21, nationwide to follow

by Rosalie Kicks, Old Sport & Editor in Chief

“Cadavers don’t grow on trees!”

Most children will give the standard answer of teacher, astronaut, or veterinarian when asked of a future profession. Not me. I wanted to be a vampire. Ever since I caught my first glimpse of Bela Lugosi as Dracula, in the 1948 motion picture, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, I was enamored with having a career in a cape under the pale moonlight. Vampires are fascinating creatures… except maybe for the whole committing murder on a daily basis business.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (HVSCSP) tells the tale of Sasha (Sara Montpetit) a demure, young vampire that is not up to the task of killing. Her predilection to a passive demeanor and compassion for humans runs so deep that even her fangs refuse to come in. All Sasha wants is an endless supply of ethically acquired blood bags and free time to make music on her keyboard. This is cause for concern and her parents take her to numerous specialists. After her family grows tired and frustrated of catching corpses to satiate Sasha’s hunger, they decide to hold an intervention. As Sasha sips on one of her juice boxes (an IV bag full of blood) her family explains why she needs to embrace her heritage and learn to make kills independently. They inform Sasha that she will be moving in with her cousin Denise (Sophie Cadieux) to learn the all about being an independent vampire around town. Denise, an enthusiastic bloodsucker, agrees to show her the ropes and not provide Sasha with a drop of blood. Of corpse (see what I did there) this type of forceful tact causes a slew of problems, as Sasha continues to refuse to succumb to the pressures of her family and their views of what they believe is a natural disposition for beings like them.

Sasha’s feelings of not wanting to follow in the footsteps of her family were very real to me. Some of the issues she faced I even found to be relatable, minus the whole part of slaughtering as a way of life part. If I put myself in her shoes and was indeed a vampire, I would not want to murder people for food either, and much like Sasha I would be on the pursuit to find another way. She finds an alternative method to obtain sustenance when she attends a suicide prevention meeting. Here she meets Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a down on his luck teenager that is going through it, in more ways than one. There is a scene in which he informs someone concerned about whether he would commit murder or not after he was seen fatally ending the life of a bat, “I would not kill anyone but myself'.” Simply put, Paul sees death as an interesting solution. At the meeting when Sasha hears Paul’s sentiments on his life, she believes she may have found a an answer to both of their problems. He wants to die and she is able to assist him in this venture. Sasha rationalizes that killing is OK if a person wants to terminate.

Before Sasha ends his existence she asks Paul if he has any last requests. This inevitably leads to much tomfoolery and shenanigans. It also is cause for the two to realize that they are not alone in this world and that how you exist is something you, yourself define. I enjoyed watching the scenes between these two characters. Félix-Antoine Bénard and Sara Montpetit were quite great with playing off one another especially, given that they both possess a somewhat deadpan, meek way about them. Ultimately, this made their delivery of a zinger that more compelling. The duo screamed casting miracle and could not have looked their parts more perfectly.

After the opening events of this movie, I knew that I was going to love it. The plot would have had to take a rather sharp turn to change my initial opinion and instead, as the picture progressed I found myself more enthralled. It also reminded me that I need to track down some Brenda Lee albums. With that said, the music throughout this film is on-point and really makes me hope there is a soundtrack pressed on vinyl. Writer/Director, Ariane Louis-Seize has made such an incredible feature film debut that I will undoubtedly rewatch for years to come (fingers crossed for a physical disc release too). Without a doubt this motion picture will end up on my favorites list at the end of the year. HVSCSP is fangtastic!