A good film title can be hard to find. Bad ones are far more plentiful (in 2015, The Hollywood Reporter listed Dude, Where’s My Car, Freddy Got Fingered, and Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones among its 50 worst of all time). This scarcity of great titles is why, when a knock-out name lands on a filmmaker’s lap, it’s often worth changing whatever project they had planned in order to make it work.
This is precisely what happened with Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, a film that premiered at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori sidebar and is a strong contender for the greatest film title of the year. Canadian writer/director Ariane Louis-Seize had a vague idea to do a short film about a vampire girl who places an advertisement in a newspaper looking for willing blood donors. However, when she pitched this idea to her co-writer Christine Doyon, Doyon immediately responded with, “So there’s your title.” Louis-Seize instantly recognized the power of the title and decided to scrap her plans for the short film, changing the plot around to fit the captivating name. Thus, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person became her directorial debut.
While teenage angst and vampires have been frequent bedfellows on-screen since the Twilight era (and perhaps even Buffy), Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person gives this pairing a fresh twist. Set in and around Montreal, the film follows Sasha, a sensitive young vampire who has such an aversion to killing that she is unable to even draw her fangs. After her disappointed parents cut off her supply of blood bags (which they keep in the fridge and regularly replenish through their own murders), Sasha is cast out and meets suicidal teen Paul. The two protagonists realize that their differing plights could potentially be mutually beneficial.
Louis-Seize had wanted to make a vampire film since her first short film, 2016’s Wild Skin, which tells the story of a young woman having a strange erotic experience after finding a live python in her apartment. Among the various genre titles that inspired her, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night had a significant impact on Louis-Seize. She showed the film to her lead actress, Sara Montpetit, and was particularly drawn to the way it explored various themes.
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“I watched a lot of vampire movies, and I wanted to reference them, but I also wanted to do my own thing,” Louis-Seize explains. “I’m also really inspired by mumblecore and coming-of-age stories, and the visual aesthetics of Wes Anderson.”
Louis-Seize cites the 1983 film The Hunger as one of her earliest influences. Through movies about vampires, she realized that it was possible to delve into “lots of deep, human struggles.” Unlike traditional vampire films where vampires are portrayed as blood-thirsty killers, The Hunger presented a gray area between attraction and repulsion. Louis-Seize wanted to explore this ambiguous territory in her own film.
Adding a touch of comedy to her film, Louis-Seize incorporated a new vampire element – Sasha’s life-giving blood bags. She depicts Sasha sucking on the bags noisily through a straw, which creates a playful, childlike image. In order to make the scenes believable, the production had to create a suitable blood substitute for Montpetit to enjoy. Instead of using corn syrup, which is typically used as faux blood in films, the production team experimented with different recipes until they found one that Montpetit found palatable.
Interestingly, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is not the only coming-of-age vampire film from a first-time female filmmaker premiering at Venice. Night Will Come, the feature debut of Céline Rouzet, is also screening in the Orizzonti competition and follows a teenage boy in small-town France who tries to conceal his lust for blood. Louis-Seize suggests that Julia Ducournau’s Cannes-winning body horror film Titane helped pave the way for such titles to receive slots at the Venice Film Festival.
“I think it was a statement that there’s a place for female genre filmmakers – I think it made a difference for the openness of the festival,” Louis-Seize explains.
The emergence of these unique and compelling vampire films directed by women showcases the evolving landscape of genre cinema and demonstrates the increasing appreciation for diverse perspectives in filmmaking. Titles like Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person and Night Will Come challenge conventions and push the boundaries of the genre, offering audiences fresh and thought-provoking narratives. As filmmakers continue to explore new storytelling possibilities within the vampire genre, audiences can look forward to more exciting and innovative films in the future.
