The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster

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.

I really did. The cast is uniformly very good to excellent. The lead (the "angry black girl" if you will), Laya DeLeon Hayes, gives a performance that is warm, human, funny, intense; her range is there. The rest of the cast was great with particular props for. Denzel Whittaker, Tracie Frank, and. Chad L. Coleman as standouts for me.

Now for the rest. The direction was spotty but decent. The cinematography was bizarre - the outdoor shots were often actually gorgeous; however, the indoor shots were awkward and sitcom-y, often to the point of taking this viewer out of the moment. Now for the script. This group of extremely talented, mostly young actors deserved so much more. There was no explanation for why anything happened (can't say too much without spoiling the plot). The dialogue started strong but kind of fell flat about halfway through. It's possible editing is to blame for some or even most of that.

All in all, it's a not-unpleasant but disappointing way to blow off some time, but it will leave you wishing for what could have been - because it could have been great.

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 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.