Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person(2024)(Review)

Wow, that’s a mouthful of a title, huh? Silly as it seems, that title tells you exactly what you’re getting into with this film. Even though its a French feature, it’s a rather approachable coming-of-age film.

In her childhood, young vampire Sasha was traumatized when her parents hired a clown for her birthday party, and then ate him. Because of this fear, she is extremely uncomfortable with the idea of killing anybody for food – relying on drinking blood from medical pouches instead. And since she hasn’t, her fangs have not fully grown in yet. She goes for a walk one night and comes across young Paul standing on the edge of a building’s roof contemplating to jump. When she runs home afterwards, she is confronted by her family and forced to leave home if she will not kill anyone. Her cousin Denise takes her in, but is extremely pushy to get her to commit.

Sasha runs back into Paul one night at a support group meeting for people with suicidal thoughts. They recognize each other and have a meet-cute after the meeting, where Sasha confesses her situation to Paul, who is surprisingly onboard to become dinner. The rest of the film plays out as they make preparations, but still don’t know if either of them will commit in the end.

This film is cute – which is a weird thing to say about such grim subject matter, but it is. The relationship that develops between our 2 protagonists is wholesome and transparent. They are honest with each other, and try to help each other the whole way while encountering Paul’s bullies, Sasha’s pressuring family, and more. It feels like an adult version of ‘The Little Vampire’ mixed with something like ‘The Bucket List’ – and it works.

A hell of a lot of charm, a decent amount of bloodshed, and some entrancing relationship dynamics build for a fun, fluid ride through responsibilities and acceptance of one’s fates & expectations. It’s ultimately a story you can probably predict, but as usual, the journey is where the fun is to be had here.

3.5/5
“Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” is currently available to rent/buy on VOD services.

‘Til Next Time,
Mike Cleopatra