The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

This movie was listed among horror films, but it doesn't belong in that category. The core concept about the struggles of Black people within their own communities is good, but it wasn't portrayed as one might expect. While the attempt to explore it from a sci-fi perspective was interesting, the execution was poor. The trailer gave a vibe of horror and suspense, but it delivered only the latter.

The lead character performs well, and her development is solid. The young girl also fits her role. However, I wish the lead had more depth-perhaps a darker personality and a stronger obsession with her mission.

The VFX are poor. Honestly, the science aspect doesn't make sense. The character is portrayed as a nerd, but she seems to know little about physics or chemistry, although she's good at biology. We see electrical circuits, diodes, gates, and anatomy pictures in her books, but she is far more naïve than her portrayal suggests.

It feels as though the movie was initially written by an adult but later taken over by a child.

Death has been marking the life of the young and intelligent Vicaria (Laya DeLeon Hayes) for as long as she can remember. Both her mother and her brother have died, the latter murdered. And she lives alone with her authoritarian father (Chad L. Coleman). "Death is a disease" says Vicaria, a disease that she is about to eradicate by herself. After the brutal and sudden murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life, though the results aren't entirely successful. A series of circumstances have led her to become a mad scientist capable of resurrecting bodies and making them a monstrous extension of all the rage and frustration that she has had to live and is having to live. Death can be cured !

A contemporary Frankenstein that examines, through terror, the horrors and brutalities faced by African-American communities living in marginal areas of the United States. Police violence, racism, criminal gangs, and the world of drugs have taken their toll on the protagonists and this is demonstrated throughout the film.

The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster(2023) thematically challenges our ideas of life and death. Bomani J. Story, the film's writer and director, crafts a thrilling tale about a family that, despite the terrors of systemic pressure, will survive and be reborn again. There is plenty of violence, grue and gore, the heart stops several times. The film is somewhat reminiscent of the much better ¨Deadly Friend¨ 1986 by Wes Craven also with a teenager from a simple suburban neighborhood who creates a kind of Frankenstein for his own purposes. The interpretations of everyone around are acceptable, such as: Laya DeLeon Hayes playing the lonely teenage genius, Chad L. Coleman as her daddy, Denzel Whitaker as Kango, Reilly Brooke Stith as Aisha , among others. The motion picture was mediocrely written/produced/directed by Bomani J. Story.

The low-budget film turns out to be mediocre, so it is advisable to see other better versions inspired by the Mary Shelley classic, among which I would include the following: ¨Victor Frankenstein¨ (2015) by Paul McGuigan with Daniel Radcliffe, James McAvoy, Jessica Brown Findlay. ¨Mary Shelley's Frankenstein¨ (1994) by Kenneth Branagh with Robert De Niro, Tom Hulce, Kenneth Branagh. ¨Frankenstein unbound¨ (1990) by Roger Corman with Jason Patrick, John Hurt, Bridget Fonda, Nick Brimble. ¨The Curse of Frankenstein¨ (1957) by Terence Fisher with Peter Cushing, Hazel Court, Robert Urquhart, Christopher Lee. ¨Bride of Frankenstein¨ (1935) by James Whale with Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesiger. ¨Frankenstein¨ (1931) by James Whale with Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Mae Clarke, John Boles.

For an independently produced movie, this was well done.

They mention she has a German last name but won't tell us... she's obsessed with death. But why don't they tell us the name? Oh....... and her notebook is called "modern Prometheus" I get it now.

I love the restraint the filmmakers used in saving the line "It's alive! It's Alive!" when they did and giving it Aishia instead of the main character.

My biggest complaint is that Vicaria wasn't allowed to be "Mad" in Mad Scientist and makeup of for the monster wasn't strong. Chad Colman as the father character was the strongest character and my eyes were glued to the screen when ever he appeared.

This COULD have been great, it really could have. Maybe it just needed an extra 10 or 15 minutes to flesh out Vicaria & Chris' relationship, to SHOW us how close they were rather than just tell us. Maybe it needed to show a bit more of Vicaria's school life, to show us just how much of a genius she is rather than just tell us. Whatever it's lacking, it's not lacking much of it tbh.

While, yes, it IS a retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it's also more than just that. It's a story of familial bonds, and how far one young woman will go to keep those bonds alive. It's a story that gives the Creature a better chance at finding the familial love that Shelley's Creature was so cruelly denied. It's a story that doesn't just update the source material to fit our current world, but also updates the hope within.

Denzel Whitaker puts in a solid performance as Kango, the local drug lord; Keith Holliday is equally good as Kango's second, Jamaal; Chad Coleman is REALLY good in his limited screen time as Vicaria's dad, Donald; but Laya DeLeon Hayes is the real star (as she should be, playing the lead role) as Vicaria, the strong, determined young woman fighting to revive her brother and thereby restore her family.

Honestly one of the best adaptations of Mary Shelley's iconic novel I've ever seen.

A different take on a classic horror tale. I felt the pacing was good enough to keep me from looking at my phone, the jump scares weren't too predictable, and the cinematography was a1. Wasn't too preachy, some scenes were irrelevant, only issues I had was the ending was a little underwhelming and no subtitles in English. Compared to these other ridiculous "horror" films that are just excuses to show excessive gore with a basic story, this one was well done. Good movie if you're looking for a different type of horror film, take these other reviews with a grain of salt, & for 7$ you can't lose.