Black as Night

Another poor effort from The Welcome To Blumhouse series.

The lead is supposed to be, say 16, yet is played by a 28 year old actress. The fact is not helped by at least twice people mentioning she 'got breasts' this summer.

The 'good' vampires was totally ridiculous and went absolutely nowhere, the plotting was all over the place, really poor.

Pedro is a contender for most irritating character of 2021, no one in real life hopefully speaks like that.

Also referring to the main character as Wesley after Wesley Snipes because of the darkness of her skin....not cool.

2 out of 5 stars.

Poor script and direction. The plot is decent. The film does lack scares and thrills. The acting is horrible. Especially with the main characters best friend who is annoying and cheesy with dialogue. It is one film that is forgettable. Definitely a film worth skipping.

Went into this with limited expectation off the back of other recent teen horrors/remakes (Fear Street etc), it looked to have everything of interest.

It was underwhelming.

Wasted for a greater story it could of told. Nothing was terrible just very mediocre.

Would i recommend or watch it again? No.

Ever since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and the woefully inadequate efforts to rebuild many residential areas, New Orleans has served as glaring example of income inequality, racism and government stasis. This darkly comic film piles one more problem onto the shoulders of a blighted, mostly minority neighborhood - vampires who feed on junkies and the homeless. From the bloodsuckers' point of view, it's a way to fly (figuratively, if not literally) under the radar, since they're feeding on those least likely to be missed by the authorities. Locals understandably feel otherwise, once they're aware of the situation.

When a teenager (Asjha Cooper) happens to see a group feeding on one poor soul, she tries to intervene, getting bitten in the process. Fortunately a passing car causes the vamps to pull out - suckus interruptus - before she's been drained enough to be killed or turned. She researches the creatures, recruiting a few allies for a more serious version of a Scooby Doo or Nancy Drew counterattack. Casualties occur in a moderately gory battle for the community and our species.

The script by Sherman Payne efficiently packages a nice mix of humor, suspense, action and social messaging. A couple of performances and scenes border on the campy (Keith David, consider yourself warned), but the author's important points land without pontification or other forms of overkill. The trio of plucky protagonists discharge their acting duties as well as their slaying. Better, actually, since they're forced to learn the essential techniques on the fields of battle, with inevitable missteps along the way. Dangerous setting for a long learning curve.

Cooper's performance as actor and narrator is noteworthy, particularly for a relatively new face. As her initially-shy character grows in confidence and determination, she reminds me of another female vampire foe - a younger version of True Blood's Tara Thornton (Rutina Wesley). The film comes from prolific low-budget horror source Blumhouse Productions, and rates as one of their better efforts among those I've seen. They know how to get the most value per dollar of investment.

Favourably with a wooden stick/stake that is ... deep digging ... wait what? My maybe questionable sense of humor aside, the movie has some Black Lives Matter vibes going for it. You may find this disturbing (for the wrong reasons, pun intended) or you can go with the flow.

Overall a decent effort, that I think has been taken down rating wise because some couldn't handle what the message was overall. Or maybe they were dissapointed by the really terrible ending (last scene) ... that I would understand ... wasn't enough to drag my rating down but hey - we all receive and digest differently don't we? Social commentary is more than fine, it drags in other places. Still Kudos to Blumhouse for allowing movies with a message to be made ...