The Transfiguration was like a step into the world of Nicolas Cage’s Vampires Kiss crossed with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, with a small dash of Menace II Society. Directed by Michael O’Shea, it is a horror-drama set in the projects of Brooklyn.
This is a hopeless, morose story – like a vampire slowing making his way towards you in the night. The story of a bullied black teenager named Milo (Eric Ruffin) who meets a self-destructive white girl named Sophie (Chloe Levine) and they bond over generally how shitty things are and how lonely and scared they feel. Sounds like your typical teen love story! Is this the new Pretty in Pink?!?! Almost, the catch here is that Milo practices on his compulsion to drink human blood and his mad fanaticism of vampire movies; Sophie self-mutilates.
It was obviously written by someone who loved the “good” vampire movies. Milo gives love to Let the Right One In, Near Dark, Nosferatu, while throwing shade at the universally hated Twilight series (Sorry, tweens, you don’t count. You created Justin Beiber). I thought it was an engaging, interesting flick, packed with characters I believed in.
Currently available on Netflix.
3.5 / 5
