Review: 'Humanist Vampire' is a quietly charming dark comedy that shows the human side of sucking blood

The Quebecois dark comedy “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” is a charming, if somewhat slight, story of what happens when desire and empathy interfere with each other.

Sasha (Sarah Montpetit) is a young vampire — well, 68, but looking 17 — who as a young girl (played by Lilas-Rose Cantin) was traumatized by a birthday clown. Well, not by the clown, but by the sight of her family devouring the clown. When she sees blood, the vampire doctors tell her parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux), her brain registers compassion for the humans, not hunger. Because of this, her fangs never grow in properly.

When Sasha’s mother becomes impatient with preparing blood baggies for her daughter, the parents send Sasha to live with her cousin, Denise (Noémie O’Farrell), who tries to teach Sasha how to hunt for humans. It’s how, one night, Sasha first sees Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a solitary high-school student who’s picked on by a bully (Arnaud Vachon) and contemplates killing himself. 

When Paul knocks himself out running away from Sasha, she sees the blood on his forehead and starts feeling hungry — and her fangs start growing. Paul soon realizes what Sasha is, but being depressed and willing to end it all, he figures feeding her is as good a way to go as any. But when she brings the boy upstairs to suck him dry, they instead bond over a Brenda Lee song and become friends. 

Director Ariane Louis-Seize, who co-wrote with Christine Doyon, brings a dry wit to her feature debut, capturing the demure Sasha as she gradually turns her phobia into a superpower, teaming with Paul to free him from everything that is making his life miserable. The pairing of Montpetit and Bénard brings out the story’s edgy quirks, as the two shy characters spark in unexpected and quietly moving ways.

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‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’

★★★

Opens Friday, July 26, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for violence, bloody images and language. Running time: 91 minutes; in French, with subtitles.