At first sight the title of this movie (2023) by Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize lets us know three things: 1) The core of its plot; 2) That we would be immersed in a fantasy world where vampires exist; and 3) That it will be about a relationship—on the one hand, the humanist vampire, on the other, the consenting suicidal person, its perfect victim. It will be about two souls looking for each other. Thus we will be presented with a romantic film, in the widest meaning of the term—and precisely in a world where romance is dying!

The film connects directly with the vampire mythology and aesthetics developed during Romanticism during the first half of the 19^th Century: blood, darkness and eroticism. But further, it embraces two of the guiding ideals of that historic period: 1) To live one’s way or not to live at all, and 2) To give one’s life for a bigger cause, be it freedom, the homeland or a loved one.

Sasha is a young vampire who refuses to kill people to feed herself. She is thus an abnormality within her species, which is already abnormal in a world dominated by humans. This double condition of exclusion pushes her to the edge of annihilation. On the other side, Paul faces a similar fate: lonely for being the teenage only child of a single mother and for being bullied at school and work by his classmates, coworkers and even teachers, he sees no exit but suicide. We are presented thus with two broken people that are meant to meet each other from their marginality.

Although the film is not set in the 19^th Century, neither is it in the actual present. The film exists in a parallel universe where music is played on vinyl records and cellphones don’t exist. This is not circumstantial, for human relationships—or in this case, human-vampire relationships—would have to be approached completely differently in today’s reality where social networks and smartphones have almost destroyed what is left of interpersonal bonds.[1] This abstraction in time goes together with an abstraction in space: the movie occurs in a small town, away from the hyper-accelerated rhythm of industrialization. There one can run into a familiar face at any moment, thus setting the conditions for meaningful connections.

This double abstraction helps the film to better pose its premise, but it doesn’t mean it is purely idealistic. Sasha’s decision not to kill humans is, indeed, an incapacity to provide for herself, putting her own survival at peril, just as if a worker refused to work because they considered it an act of exploitation against oneself, others and nature.[2] From this standpoint, the movie can be seen as a metaphor of individual resistance against the reproduction of an exploitative system, which is nevertheless presented as natural and as the only one possible. It raises the questions: Is there a way to survive within its limits without completely submitting to it? Are there spaces devoid of its control where we can exist, and, while existing, create a different way of life? Can we meet others in these “cracks” of the system? The answer that the movie poses to these questions is especially creative, as well as hopeful.

Despite the fantastical plot, the film actually deals with at least two fundamental human issues: 1) The quest for personal and collective identity, and 2) The fear of loneliness, suffering and death. Despite its historical abstraction—not being set in a concrete time and place—it has an implicitly political meaning, including a subtle reflection on euthanasia.

Spiced with clever dark humor and depicted through beautiful cinematography, endearing acting and a powerful soundtrack, Humanist Vampire is a modest masterpiece, especially recommended to dreamy, romantic, humanist spirits—that is, to the ones who still believe that, despite this shattered society, human relationships should be put front and center on our agenda. Being a Humanist doesn’t only mean having compassion for others, but to believe in the actuality and future of humankind, bringing forth the best of it: love, art, culture, revolution. Just as the Romantics said: To live one’s way or not to live at all!

–Bearded King of the New Acropolis

[1] I like very much how this year’s Draft Perspectives have described this situation, connecting it with the present state of capitalism:

The crumbling of society goes beyond economic measures… Corporations exploited the science of addiction to push people into unhealthy diets and relationships with technology that have well-documented harmful effects on physical and mental health, especially to children. Isolation, atomization, and loss of community deeply infect our society. In a vicious cycle, they add to and draw from algorithmic manipulation by social media, which pushes people into propaganda echo chambers. Irrationalism and paranoia are normalized.

[2] Not coincidentally, in his description of capitalism in Capital, Marx compared it to a vampire, for it drains constantly and insatiably the blood of the workers.