‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster' Review: A Contemporary and Timely Retelling [SXSW 2023]
The Frankenstein monster or Prometheus legend has remained evergreen for a reason, but by juxtaposing it in the tumultuous world of racial inequality, it gives an old monster some very new tricks.
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster has some of the familiar tropes found in the class monster movies in the old Universal catalog. There are terrifying lumbering monsters, a mad scientist, and victims of untimely monstrous ends, but it’s much more than that. The film has a much stronger message. The story follows a girl named Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes), a gifted girl living in a terrible neighborhood, who has been a victim of violence within the community for as far back as she can remember. Her mother what killed out in the open as Vicaria sat with her. Vicaria’s brother, Chris grew angry without his mother, joined a gang, and suffered his untimely end. Vicaria’s father has also had difficulty dealing with the death in his family, and so sadly, has turned to drugs, the currency of the neighborhood. Then it occurs to V, what if death is a disease. What if she can cure it? What if she can solve the problems of her family, and stop the ‘infection’?
Writer/Director Bomani J. Story is clearly inspired by the Mary Shelley classic Romanticist novel, but by modernizing the story, it seems to be missing some key aspects of the narrative, especially the main character. Granted, V has the same (if not contemporary) swagger of a young Victor Frankenstein. She doesn’t back down from a fight, she is vehement about what she believes in, sure of herself and overly confident, but many iterations of Victor’s character has been about his battle with God. That he, in fact, is playing God. It was somewhat disappointing to see that a younger version of this character, a strong headed teen living in a hellscape of an urban setting didn’t once address that there is no God in the Godless neighborhood she lives in. Her family (her friends and her father) even sit down to dinner and say grace, but V doesn’t bat an eye. Victor’s atheism is such a vital internal struggle, that it felt like a miss within the film for not including it.
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster does, however, tackle heavy themes of race, class, and the educational system. Though all of those can be tied together as symptoms of a larger problem, it is still quite a few weighty subjects to address. Like some of the recent great horror filmmakers who have created layered horror films, Story has entered the pantheon of the likes of Jordan Peele, Nia DaCosta, and Remi Weekes. There is a reality to these films, a horrific reality which seems to ground the subtext, and Story has done extremely well to find that voice, find that moral and find that reality.
Aside from a great subtextual films about the horrors that many young black people have to live through, it is a fairly solid horror film. There is certainly some room to up the horror game within it. ‘Chris’ (The Monster) character design seems like there are some interesting takes on the classic Gollum, but it’s hidden way too much. There is a train of thought that within horror the mind can fill in the gaps and make things more horrific, but this really just felt like the audience deserved to see more. Same goes for the kills. Chris’ rampage was limited to being shot, getting back up and strangling his victims. He would seemingly leave burn marks on this victim’s flesh which was interesting enough, but it was the only time the limitations of this small budget film was felt. Story did the best he could with what he had, but a lot of the ‘money shots’ in the film were too brief, too dimly lit, and too limited. It will be interesting to see what Story, who has certainly proved himself with this film can do when he’s given a little more room to operate.
At a perfect run time of one and a half hours, this was certainly a well-paced, exciting and interesting take on the iconic story. Story, himself is certainly a new voice in filmmaking worth listening to, and it is interesting to note, that with Universal having dropped the failed ‘Dark Universe’ reboot they had for all their classic movie monsters, that perhaps this is the route they should consider. Intelligent, topical and contemporary versions of the characters, where small filmmaking is better than massive budgets and Tom Cruise.