Horst_In_Translation Review of The Transfiguration

The Transfiguration (2016)

Okay addition to the vampire movie genre

[6/10 · 22 August 2017]

"The Transfiguration" is an American 95-minute movie from 2016 and the first full feature film by writer and director Michael O'Shea. The cast does not really include any well-known actors. Actually you could argue if the title of my review is correct as vampirism is a crucial component from start to finish and many known vampire films are referenced from start to finish including the excellent Twilight, Let the Right One In etc. in here, but there are no vampires in the supernatural sense. Actually, the vampire-addicted protagonist felt more of a zombie at times because I kinda felt that he was basically sleepwalking his film through the film, but that's not a negative deal-breaker either as the film still works for the most part. Yes it is somewhat bleak and extremely slow and you probably could have fit it in an hour too, but the atmospheric take and character study of two young people struggling makes more than up for it. That's also why I am a bit surprised about the ending O'Shea picked as honestly it did not feel too authentic to me with the desired suicide explanation and it also really went strongly against everything before that when it comes to the tone of the film. Yes it does include a bit of a real life reference that pulls the boy harshly out of his vampire reality and there the boy's intentions hurt the film at all. A bit of a pity. I am not angry because the central character was killed as I honestly cared very little about him anyway, I am instead angry, well a bit, that they did not go for simpler, more harmonic closure, maybe a moment of harmony and peace or even for the boy living his fantasy with killing and drinking a girl. Almost everything could have been better than what they actually went with. Oh well. It is what it is. Thanks to several good moments and a decent story overall, I still give the film a thumbs-up. Go see it if you like vampire-themed films. There really aren't that many anymore these days.