Jen Yamato reviews The Transfiguration
If vampires are defined as lethal beings who stalk the Earth feasting on human blood, Milo (Eric Ruffin) , the isolated 14-year-old African American protagonist of Michael O’ Shea’s quietly powerful directorial debut, technically fits the bill.
Orphaned and withdrawn, Milo lives with his older brother, a PTSD-suffering veteran, in a Brooklyn housing project rife with gangbangers who bully Milo and terrorize the block. Smart and too perceptive for his own good, he spends his lonely days and nights in the comfort of his VHS collection of vampire movies, poring over modern bloodsucking classics like “Thirst, ” “Fright Night” and “Near Dark.”
Unlike most teenage boys navigating the usual existential angst of young adulthood, Milo doesn’ t watch vampire flicks for kicks: He’s also studying them for “hunting” tricks, rules to avoid detection and capture and, perhaps, clues to the deep, desperate need that occasionally drives him to slip out of his apartment into the shadowy streets of Manhattan in search of his own victims.
Bold and brutal in shocking spurts, the indie horror drama from writer-director O’ Shea is a startling debut that leaves a fresh mark on the genre while celebrating its forbears. “The Transfiguration’s” embrace of its own vampiric influences run so deep that low-budget schlock king Lloyd Kaufman and NYC DIY cinema stalwart Larry Fessenden (“Habit”) turn up in cameos as unlucky victims of Milo’s nighttime stalking, their blood literally feeding the hunger of a younger generation.
Milo’s routine — go to class, evade the questions of a concerned school counselor, watch more movies, find more victims—– is interrupted with the arrival of Sophie (Chloe Levine) , a slightly older girl with self-destructive tendencies of her own who moves into the building with her abusive grandfather.
