Growing up is already a tough time to navigate. Growing up as a vampire who doesn’t want to feed off people makes it even more difficult. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a French-Canadian dark horror comedy written by Christine Doyon and Ariane Louis-Seize, with Louis-Seize having also directed. The film takes a very comedic approach to a coming-of-age tale, throwing in plenty of darker themes and horror elements to give the story a unique edge.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person tells the story of Sasha (Sara Montpetit), the youngest in a family of vampires. As a child, Sasha had a traumatic experience on her birthday when she was meant to kill her first human. After she refused to kill, Sasha’s parents took her to a vampire doctor. This doctor determined her fangs were ready for feeding, but Sasha’s traumatic experience made her feel empathy whenever she saw a human harmed, making her fangs refuse to come out. While her parents hoped Sasha would eventually grow out of this, her father is fine providing his daughter with blood bags to feed on from their hunts, even as her mother wants her daughter to become more independent.
These are vampires who don’t necessarily live forever. Instead, they age at a much slower rate and can live for hundreds of years. When we meet grown-up Sasha, she appears to be a teenager, yet she’s actually in her 60s while the aunt who helped raise her is almost 400 years old. Even after all this time, Sasha still hasn’t killed a person, instead feeding on the blood bags from her parents’ hunts. Everything changes when Sasha first lays eyes on Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a teenage boy standing on a roof contemplating suicide. When Paul gets off work, Sasha follows him in a sort of playful hunt, only for Paul to accidentally hit his head and bleed. This is the first time Sasha’s fangs come out. As Paul wakes up, Sasha flees in a combination of embarrassment and fear.
Sasha is already quite stressed and confused after her encounter with Paul. To make things worse, her parents are kicking Sasha out and forcing her to live with her cousin, Denise (Noémie O'Farrell). The family is hoping with Denise’s guidance, and no easy access to blood bags, Sasha will finally hunt for herself. Sasha still refuses and even contemplates eating human food, which would kill her. Instead, Sasha goes to a support group for people suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. There she meets Paul again. Paul has figured out Sasha is a vampire. He is relentlessly bullied and doesn’t fit in, so he’s more than willing to give his life to Sasha so she can feed.
Up until this point, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person does a great job showing the similarities and differences between these two “teenagers.” Neither fit in among their families or peers, and that feeling of isolation has led them to have suicidal ideation. While Paul’s situation is sad, it is one that could likely be helped with therapy, medication, and other means. Sasha’s situation is made more unique, and more serious, because she’s a vampire.
Vampires have to feed on human blood in order to survive. Killing your first human appears to be a major rite of passage in Sasha’s family. It signifies she’s an adult, old enough to find her own food and take care of herself. While Sasha’s parents both seem to think she was a bit too young to kill for the first time, it marks her first failure at transitioning from childhood to adulthood. After many years, Sasha still hasn’t reached that milestone and has no intention of doing so, until she’s faced with an ultimatum: her family won’t supply her with blood anymore, and her fangs refuse to come out to feed. So how is a vampire who has too much empathy to ever harm a human supposed to live? In Sasha’s mind, the only option is to eat human food and kill herself; that way she will never hurt anyone. Meeting Paul presents Sasha with an option she never considered before.
Despite Paul’s willingness to be Sasha’s next meal, she delays the process by claiming she wants to help him achieve his dying wish first. Paul wants to confront his bullies. Together they get petty revenge on multiple offenders before finally facing Henry (Arnaud Vachon), the worst of them all. It goes well at first, but as the pair flee, Sasha faints from hunger. She wakes to discover Paul feeding her his blood from a cut on his hand. He’s ready to die, but Sasha still can’t do it. This is when Henry and his goons find them, and Henry viciously beats Paul. The combination of blood and fearing for Paul’s life makes Sasha’s fangs finally come out, allowing her to fight off the bullies and feed on Henry. Sasha makes Paul run, and when she’s finished with Henry, she calls Denise to help dispose of the body. But Denise knows about Paul, and when she realizes the body isn’t his, she threatens to kill him herself to keep their true nature a secret.
Sasha finds Paul again, and they flee to a hotel. Sasha is worried her family will kill Paul, and Paul can’t really return to his normal life after his reign of revenge. Paul finally has something to live for (Sasha) and he proposes she turn him. While Sasha is reluctant at first, Paul has it all worked out. He finally realizes Sasha’s fangs only come out when she fears for his life, so if she thinks about Denise trying to kill him, she should be able to bite him. He also has a plan for them both to consentually feed on suicidal people in order to survive. Sasha clearly cares for Paul, and his plan isn’t half bad, so she bites him and feeds just enough to allow him to turn. The process doesn’t go quite as planned, leading to Sasha calling her family for help. They’re not happy at first, but they love Sasha and help save Paul. It’s a beautiful moment for the family because, despite them not understanding Sasha, the familial love is strong and shows they likely would do just about anything for her. They just want Sasha to be able to sustain herself after they’re all gone.
The film ends by showing Sasha and Paul together as vampires. Paul’s mother is a nurse, and they seem to have told her the truth about what they are. Now, the duo has a perfect system for feedings. They find someone at the end of their life, but who can give consent from their deathbed. Once the person is ready to die, Sasha plays them a song on her keyboard and Paul brings them a rock or mineral (he’s a collector), all while the person’s blood is drained into blood bags from an IV. It’s a flawless system as it allows Sasha and Paul to get consent, the process is peaceful, and they never have to actually bite or harm their food.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has a love story in it, but the real Uterus Horror narrative is rooted in Sasha’s journey to find her own path. She’s not like any other vampire. Her empathy for humans forces her to try to find a new way of living. Her family doesn’t understand her, and their only solution is to try to force Sasha to kill and feed on humans. It’s clear she was always trying to find a different way of living as a vampire, but it wasn’t until Paul came around that she was able to truly explore other options. Perhaps his humanity is what allowed Paul to offer a different perspective, as he wasn’t raised as a vampire to drink blood. With Paul’s help, Sasha finds a way to drink human blood, but she does it in a way that is consensual and peaceful for everyone involved.
Sasha’s Uterus Horror story is sweet and charming, despite the need for blood. As a vampire, her kindness and empathy towards humans makes her an outcast in her family, and could also lead to her demise. Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person gives Sasha the opportunity to connect with someone who understands what it feels like to be lonely and different from your peers. Making that deep emotional connection also helps Sasha find her own way of living. It’s a compelling journey that shows there isn’t just one correct way to live your life. There are always other paths, and growing up is all about finding the right one for you. Sasha did just that, with Paul’s help. Now she can live out her days with the man she loves and an ethically-sourced food supply. Who says you can’t have it all?
About this series: in a genre typically considered “for the guys,” it’s time to give a nod to the ladies. Uterus Horror is a subgenre of horror films that focuses on the uniquely female experience of puberty and the act of coming into your sexuality, using horror elements to emphasize and/or act as a metaphor for that experience. These films are often ignored in theaters but quickly develop cult followings. Columnist Molly Henery, who named and defined the subgenre, tackles a new film each month and analyzes how it fits into this bloody new corner of horror.
