It's an acquired taste. You'll end up liking it
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant in it's French original) is a 2023 French language Canadian (Quebec) fantasy comedy film directed by Ariane Louis-Seize.
Meet humanist vampire Sasha. At the ripe age of 68, her parents have decided it's time for her to start hunting humans for blood on her own and not live off their blood supply. Sasha has such moral qualms about killing that she can't even erect her teeth to bite someone. She finds a solution in a suicidal person, Paul. Of course, things will not be that easy for them.
As Jessica Kiang of Variety summed it up: "It’s more fairy tale than scary tale".
This film provides examples of:
- Asshole Victim: Henry, Paul's bully.
- Boy Meets Ghoul: Sasha becomes fascinated by Paul almost from the moment she lays eyes on him.
- Clashing Cousins: While Sasha and Denise are not fighting each other physically they do not get along, especially due to Denise being more blood thirsty.
- Coming of Age Story: The film is about Sasha coming into her own and not following her parents ideas, but also facing the practical realities of her vampire existence.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Many scenes play on the humor of Sasha's situation being a more extreme reflection of mundane human issues:
- The scene were Sasha first takes home Paul and tries to bite him is an obvious parody of a teenager bringing home a boyfriend to have sex for the first time, with her inability to erect her fangs being a gender flipped parody of erectile dysfunction. Denise reaction to them coming is her house is not dissimilar to an older, experienced sibling being pleasantly surprised that their little sister will get laid.
- The prologue were Sasha's parents are told about her "issues" is clearly a mockery of parents having a young child diagnosed as neurodivergent. The parents different reactions are also typical: her mother wants to have her committed to solve the "problem" while her father is more accepting and tries to shelter her to a fault.
- Denise being stuck with JP is not dissimilar to someone getting knocked up by mistake and ending up having to take care of the baby.
- Double Take: Paul's mother does this when Paul tells the principal that he could never kill anyone, except himself.
- Fantasy Forbidding Mother: Sasha's mother suggests getting rid of Sasha's beloved keyboard to get her to hunt. Sasha's father strongly opposes this.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Sasha - her parents are informed in the prologue that while other vampires' brains react to seeing human killed by activating hypothalamus (making them excited) Sasha' has areas associated with empathy activated.
- Masquerade: The vampires do take care to hide their victims and Denise threatens to kill Paul unless Sasha goes through with it to prevent knowledge about their existence from spreading.
- The Ingenue: Sasha.
- It's All About Me: Sasha's mother often speaks as if she is the one providing blood for the whole family by hunting and Sasha's father is quick to point out that he hunts too.
- Older Than They Look: Sasha is 68 years old, and looks like she's 20 or under.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampires do age, but very slowly. Sasha looks like a high schooler but is sixty eight years old. 300 years is frequently stated as an average life span, with Sasha's aunt being considered old at 341. The vampires starve presumably to death if not feeding on blood and die if they consume human food. They are also implied to be stronger than humans. Sasha says that sun light will kill her and is shown taking care to cover windows. The vampires are also said to have allergic reactions to religious objects, but this is not shown.
- Ungrateful Townsfolk: Paul kills the bat that his classmates were terrified of and is then called out for being cruel to animals.
- Sliding Scale of Vampire Friendliness: With Sasha in one corner and her older cousin Denise in the other.
