Black as Night (2021)

Directed by: Maritte Lee Go | 87 minutes | horror | Actors: Keith David, Asjha Cooper, Abbie Gayle, Fabrizio Guido, Craig Tate, Joseph Singletary, Theodus Crane, Sammy Nagi Njuguna, Frankie Smith, Derek Roberts, Kenneisha Thompson, Tunde Laleye, Mason Beauchamp, Tim J. Smith, Al Mitchell, Andrew Penrow

Fifteen-year-old Shawna is a timid girl trying to survive in the rough city of New Orleans. She lives with her father and brother in a decent neighborhood, while her drug-addicted mother resides in a run-down part of town that is still dealing with the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Katrina. So not an easy situation. To make matters worse, Shawna is attacked by a group of bloodthirsty vampires one night as she is returning home from a party. When she also loses her mother, Shawna and her friends Chris and Pedro decide to do battle with the undead order who are trying to create a vampire army from the many homeless people who roam the city…

‘Black as Night’ is a film that does not shy away from well-known themes, yet tries to give its own twist to the popular subgenre of the vampire film. This is mainly done by interweaving the (partly racially determined) huge gap between rich and poor in today’s US, the slavery past and the centuries-long marginalization of the African American population.

While a film like the original ‘Candyman’ succeeds in linking the dark side of America’s racial past to a modern supernatural threat, that attempt in ‘Black as Night’ largely kills. The reason? The predominant tone is quite light-hearted, which makes it seem as if the socially critical element is being dragged in by the hair.

The horror is also mild and often loses out against the action element, making ‘Black as Night’ often reminiscent of a film version of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ with a predominantly African-American cast. The ‘my-darling-diary-like’ narrative style (“The same summer I got breasts I fought vampires”) that the film uses doesn’t really help in creating a serious tone either. In addition, the extensive explanation about the rules of the vampire world (the change after a bite, garlic, stabbing through the heart) may be nice for the newbies in this genre, but unnecessary and long-winded for the people who already have dozens or several hundred vampire movies. seen. Moreover, the bloodsucking scum that populate this film is somewhat cartoonish and not overly scary.

Is there nothing positive to say about ‘Black as Night’? Anyway. New Orleans, for example, is an excellent setting for a film of this type. Certainly the stately, if somewhat dilapidated colonial house in the French Quarter where the bloodthirsty villains live, exudes the atmosphere that befits a supernatural horror print. The action scenes are certainly not poorly executed, while the film has a nice storytelling pace after a somewhat hesitant start. Unfortunately ‘Black as Night’ lacks the weight, suspense and narrative or emotional baggage to linger in the memory for a long time after a first viewing. A reasonable film, but unfortunately also one that does not quite live up to its potential and quickly fades into oblivion.