Shyann Wright

The movie unfortunately was disapointing As a lover of all vampire movies ranging from Van Helsing to twilight, I found this movie lacked a clear understanding of its audience. There are many layers that need to be unpacked but the first one would need to be the contradictions. Our protagonist works a seemingly annoying job where men can grope her and provide tips. Though we can all agree its disgusting this doesn't scream that our main character is the kind of girl who would turn down financial freedom with a guy she seemed all too happy to sleep with only knowing he was rich and handsome. She also attempts to appear as someone who despises discrimination but uses this to act aloof when the wedding she's in town for has no real bride or groom. This isn't an attack on her as a person. Still, more so on the contradictions in her personality, she's a strong independent woman whos smart enough to take pictures of license plates and send information to a friend about her whereabouts. Still, in the same breath cant google British wedding customs. Lastly and most importantly when asked about what she wanted out of life, she made it clear she would love financial freedom, she didn't say own a ceramics studio or get degrees she gave an answer that specifically aligned with the wealthy man she had just slept with whose made it clear he could provide all that and more. This makes her hard stance of rejecting him and his offer more or less impossible to belive. My second point is one more personal and can not be taken as seriously as the first. That is... NO ONE ASKED FOR A STRONG INDEPENDENT BLACK WOMEN. In every vampire movie there is either no presences of a black women or she is an insignificant side character never is she our lead male vampire affection. POC (i.e myself) would love to have a elena / bella type who is black. Who simply are adorned and wanted for who she is and also ends up with the vampire. If you can name more that five vampire romances with black female leads then I will retract this statement. Representation is important and I do feel if this was the premise of the movie then its sales probably would be through the roof and it would be trending in a positive way. The last points I will end with is, this isn't horror movie as its attempts to be catergorized. Nothing was scary or even remotely terrifying. One scene comprised of a jump scare but there wasn't much thrill or mystery as our main character was nosey maybe once and it wasn't even of her own volition it was because another character told her she should. Instead of being a horror mystery where the audience knows the ending but waited for the protagonist to find out. It felt more like a racial thriller which lacked the perfect combination of dissonces and impcit rasciscm. This poorly done racial thriller seems more distateful now since I've learned both the director and writer are white women. Is this horror, thriller/mystery, or attempt at a avant garde dracula retelling? the truth is... its unclear. And if this is unclear how can we begin to decide who the target audience is. Or what the intention is, its not the writer that decides a story meaning its the consumer, and we all seem confused.