Life can be difficult when you are immortal, which is a lesson that Sasha encounters the hard way. Part of a family of ancient vampires, she has only recently started to reach maturity, but much to her parent’s chagrin, she finds herself unable to hunt victims, leading them to become quite frustrated as it becomes clear that she is not willing to contribute to their survival – and she desperately seeks out a solution, which comes in the form of a depressed young man who is insistent on ending his life, but can’t find the motivation to go through with this plan. Suddenly, someone who is unable to kill finds herself interwoven in a brief but memorable friendship with someone who urgently wants to die, the two working out an unusual plan that benefits them both. In her incredibly ambitious debut feature film, Ariane Louis-Seize writes and directs Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, a wickedly funny dark comedy that blurs the boundaries between genres, creating a distinctly unique series of ideas that work in tandem to tell a peculiar but captivating story that hints at something much more profound lurking just beneath the surface. Hilariously irreverent and filled to the brim with a kind of off-the-wall humour that almost betrays its sombre and unnerving underlying message, the film is a fascinating experiment that may not be entirely immune to a few clear shortcomings but easily overcomes them with a sense of self-assured confidence that feels authentic and well-crafted in both style and substance. Louis-Seize is a filmmaker to watch, and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person feels like the quintessential example of a debut that sets extremely high expectations going forward, with all the elements need to warrant our attention being present, only needing to be further refined in whatever the director chooses to do next, with this being an extremely promising start to what we can only hope will continue to flourish into a unique and bespoke directorial career.

Vampires as a storytelling motif have existed for centuries, going back to the era of oral traditions of cultures scattered throughout the world (where they were usually referenced under a range of different names), right to the apex with Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which essentially consolidated these creatures as the centrepiece of the monster genre. Their appeal is not difficult to understand – human-like enough to be familiar, but being slightly off-kilter that they evoke a sense of dread, there is a reason they’ve become iconic and remain arguably the most popular invention of horror literature. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person contributes to an already enormous canon of films based around these entities, and while no one would ever argue that we need more films about vampires, very rarely do we find them superfluous or at least partially entertaining. The key is to find an entry point into exploring these creatures that hasn’t been done before, or presenting them from a different perspective. Louis-Seize is not the first person to structure a coming-of-age story around the concept, using vampirism as a motif for the process of maturing or developing into one’s identity, so in this regard, it is not entirely bespoke, but it does enough in terms of blending different ideas that it still feels original in its way. Constructed as a story of a protagonist trying to overcome her oversensitivity and lack of willingness to embrace her true nature, it is not difficult to see how the director was using this as a motif to look at the awkward process of growing up and realizing that you are not quite analogous with your roots, and the shame and despair that can come when you realize that you may not be exactly what those who came before intended you to become. Layered with both sentimentality and dark comedy, which work surprisingly well together, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a flurry of ideas thrown together in a manner that seems chaotic at first, but gradually starts to simmer, growing into an entrancing and entertaining combination of bold ideas and unique technical details that hint at a lot of good work being done beneath the surface.

Unfortunately, while I do veer towards being mostly positive about Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, it is clear that there are some flaws embedded within the film, many of which can’t be entirely excused or overlooked. This is a debut film, with many of the same familiar techniques newcomer directors tend to exhibit being scattered throughout, which are unfortunately unavoidable when dealing with something that feels this limited in scope. Louis-Seize seems to have a peculiar relationship with the three-act structure, since the entire film feels like a lengthy introduction scene, lacking the traditional flow that we would find in such a film. Subverting the artistic status quo is never a negative trait, but for debut filmmakers, it can help to follow the guidelines to ensure that the story is being told in a manner that is easy to follow and where it moves at a steady but reliable pace. The result is a film with an over-abundance of exposition, spending far too much time establishing these characters, and then suddenly leaping towards the climactic moments, with very little development in between. This impacts the narrative stakes (since there is hardly any tension), and makes the film not only predictable but slightly meandering in how it gets to the final act. Louis-Seize had previously directed a few short films, and it is clear that Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person was crafted from a similar perspective, with a charming but very brief premise that is now stretched into a full ninety minutes, leading to a lot of unnecessary padding in the middle – this is a fascinating film that didn’t necessarily have to be a short film (since there was space for a lot of development in terms of characters and narrative detail), but could have been massively improved had there been more clarity in the direction that the film intended to go, and further refinement in its overall approach, which would have massively improved the entire premise and allowed it to flourish more organically and with much more consistency in terms of style and narrative structure.

As part of its efforts to be a daring and original coming-of-age film, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person required a pair of young actors who are strong enough to handle some of the slightly more unwieldy material in a manner that feels authentic and exciting in tandem. For all the flaws in how the director chooses to tell the story, the performances delivered by the two leads do offer some significant compensation. The first half of the titular duo is portrayed by Sara Montpetit, who has been steadily rising in her native  Canada for a few years, gradually ascending to the status of one of its most promising and daring stars – and her performance as Sasha is a wonderful example of her extraordinary skills, which are carefully cobbled together to create such a vibrant, honest performance that feels real and honest, while still carrying some sense of the otherworldly, a balance integral to the overall success of the film. Conversely, Félix-Antoine Bénard (also a very promising young actor) plays the polar opposite, a young man crushed by his existence and whose salt-of-the-earth persona is something he is insistent on leaving behind when he eventually takes his own life. The pair are wonderful – they’re both very subtle, earnest actors who never would dare play to the rafters, but instead choose to remain subtle and nuanced, carefully piecing together the various complex aspects of the characters. The supporting cast is not as prominent, but it’s filled with strong performances that are memorable, with Noémie O’Farrell as Sasha’s bloodthirsty sister and Marie Brassard as her patrician aunt who has seemingly lost all sense of compassion or empathy, being particular highlights. It’s a solid ensemble that is well-led by the two central actors, both of whom bring the roles to life (no pun intended) and leave a lasting impression that sustains most of the film.

Considering how saturated the contemporary film industry has become, it’s difficult to begrudge something like Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person for taking some bold swings, even if some of them may not work out. Even at its most flawed, this film is astronomically more interesting and engaging than many others, and its shortcomings are those that hint at too much ambition that needs to be further refined, as opposed to something more dull and predictable. Pacing issues and narrative inconsistencies aside, it’s very easy to appreciate this film and everything it is aiming to achieve – it doesn’t say much that we haven’t seen many times before, and its overall arc is quite familiar. Yet, it’s still so delightfully charming, with a thick sense of dark humour persisting throughout and creating something captivating and earnest, while still being genuinely quite moving at the same time. Hilariously irreverent but with a soulfulness that feels quite tender at certain points, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a very promising debut for Louis-Seize, who is someone who will undoubtedly develop into a monumental talent given the time and space. The raw material with which she was working hints at a very strong future on the horizon, and her eccentric, acerbic worldview is a breath of fresh air. Holistically, it has some flaws, but the individual parts are mostly excellent, and assist in elevating Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person to be one of the more promising debuts of the past couple of years, and one more than worth the time and patience.