Horror Movie Review: Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023)

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a French-language Canadian vampire comedy horror film directed by Ariane Louis-Seize, releasing in 2023. It stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha, a teenage vampire who befriends Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a boy with suicidal tendencies.

Sasha is traumatized at a childhood birthday party after her family attacks and eats a clown they had hired to perform for her. As a result, Sasha’s fangs do not sprout and she is uncomfortable with the idea of killing people for food. Years later, she still refuses to kill and still does not have fangs.

One night, Sasha notices a teenager, Paul, attempting to jump from atop a building, but he eventually does not. Later, Sasha’s fangs suddenly emerge when she encounters him again. In a panic, she runs back home where her parents have decided that she will live with her older cousin, Denise, to learn how to hunt people.

Sasha is reluctant to learn and attracts attention as Denise feeds on JP, a man they had lured earlier, before running off. She reunites with Paul at a support group meeting for people experiencing suicidal thoughts. After the meeting, the two agree to help each other with Sasha assisting in his suicide and feeding on him. However, Sasha’s fangs disappear, and she tries to stall by asking him if he has a dying wish. Paul says he would like to get payback on Henry, his co-worker who constantly bullies him.

When they find out that Henry has gone to a party, Paul becomes hesitant about getting payback in front of everyone. Sasha suggests he could practice to boost his confidence. Paul then decides to get payback on a popular girl at school, his gym teacher, and his principal.

At the party, Henry taunts Paul, and Paul bites his hand. As they run away, Sasha collapses from hunger. Paul then cuts his hand to feed her his blood. Henry and his friends find them and start beating Paul up. Sasha’s fangs suddenly emerge, and she kills Henry and urges Paul to go home.

If you want to know what happens next, I won’t be spoiling that here! Check out the film to find out.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person immediately grabs your attention with its title alone but I can assure you, there’s much more to this film than a snappy sounding title. In fact, within is a very original and fresh take on the tired old vampire horror sub-genre. The concept of a vampire having so much empathy that they are unable to kill isn’t entirely original of course but it’s delivered here in a way that makes it feel different to what has previously been done.

For starters, the concept will appeal to more modern audiences in some ways. I mean, being a vampire sounds great in theory but I think most people would take issue with the needing to kill for food aspect. The movie takes a more grounded, realistic approach to being a vampire that’s very enjoyable. Seeing how a family of vampires function within the confines of their world and ours leads to some highly amusing moments. For example, at one stage Sasha’s parents take her to a vampire doctor for advice. They attempt to use subliminal messaging involving pictures of blood and violence in an attempt to trigger her fangs but it of course has the opposite effect. We only get a few small scenes with this type of thing but it made me want to see more of how these vampires go about their daily lives.

Another aspect that I found intriguing was the idea that vampires in this world age to a certain extent. Sasha mentions at one stage that she ages much slower than humans.

Of course, it goes without saying that a strong aspect of the film is the creativity used with its cinematography. It feels somewhat artistic but not at all pretentious if you know what I mean. There’s a particular scene with Paul & Sasha where they listen to Sasha’s favourite record and the shot is entirely static which I really loved. The acting is certainly noteworthy as well as it is pretty much top notch across the board. Sara Montpetit & Félix-Antoine Bénard have a lot of chemistry which leads to a number of highly amusing exchanges between the pair and other characters.

For me, one of the biggest highlights of the film is how everything culminates in the ending. It makes so much sense how they execute it and left me feeling very satisfied. It was a fantastic idea and there’s certainly a lot of beauty to what the pair end up doing.

Overall, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person felt like a breath of fresh air to me. In a genre where it feels like just about everything that could be done has been done, this film comes along and proved me wrong. I genuinely believe that in time this will gather a cult following and will be spoken very highly of. It hits that perfect sweet spot of being melancholic yet somehow highly amusing and darkly beautiful all at once.