Written and Directed by Michael O’Shea
Cast: Eric Ruffin, Chloe Levine, Aaron Moten, Carter Redwood, Danny Flaherty, JaQwan J. Kelly, James Lorinz, Larry Fessenden (cameo), Lloyd Kaufman (cameo)
Soundtrack: Margaret Chardiet
I hate being negative. I hate being harsh. But I cannot tell a lie.
This movie is poor, and I would not recommend it to anyone.
It’s a fine horror concept in theory: a boy obsessed with vampires acts out his violent fantasies. Is he really turning into a creature of the night, or is it just his imagination?
Except, the question never is asked, because there’s no need to ask it. In spite of the metaphysical title of The Transfiguration, the movie never plants any doubt in your mind as to whether Milo is actually becoming a vampire or not (he never even so much as puts on a pair of sunglasses). The entire time he’s just a troubled young man who is committing atrocities on people because of his own fixations (something something metaphor for loss?).
Somebody at the Q&A for this mentioned that they liked how there are no fantasy elements because then nothing requires suspension of disbelief, but that’s not exactly true because there’s a point where Sophie (the also-broken love interest) should be creeped-out enough to never come back, but she does, for some reason. So there’s that.
Again, the elevator pitch of this movie is fine, but the execution is just wrong.
It’s mumblecore in the worst way, It’s boring. It’s stagnant. There’s a significant lack of chemistry between the actors. One of the characters appears to be too young for the role. There’s very little in the way of tension. And it doesn’t feel like there are any arcs, which would be fine if there was some sort of emotional depth, but that’s missing as well.
One positive thing I will say is that the makeup effects are well done and appear to be 100% practical, but that’s hardly enough to be a saving grace.
I understand that this is writer/director Michael O’Shea’s feature debut, and it’s clear he had major budgetary constraints (I can’t think of another movie that has such a high percentage of obviously stolen shots), but, quite frankly, The Transfiguration is a caricature of independent film in the new millennium (and, as such, the attempted social commentary about violence in the inner city gets flushed down the toilet along with everything else).
Perhaps the best way I can sum everything up is that The Transfiguration made me appreciate Carnage Park, and I don’t even like that movie.
Rating: ★½ (out of five)