''The Transfiguration'' is a 2016 American
horror drama film written and directed by Michael O'Shea. It was selected to be screened in the
Un Certain Regard
(; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob.
The section presents 20 films with unusua ...
section at the
2016 Cannes Film Festival
The 69th Cannes Film Festival took place from 11 to 22 May 2016. Australian filmmaker George Miller (filmmaker), George Miller was the president of the jury for the main competition. French actor Laurent Lafitte was the host for the opening and ...
. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2017.
Plot
The film opens with a man in a public
restroom who overhears slurping noises coming from the far stall. He sees that the stall has two people in and, believing that one man is performing
fellatio
Fellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act consisting of the stimulation of a human penis, penis by using the mouth. Oral stimulation of the scrotum may also be termed ''fellat ...
on the other, leaves in embarrassment. A look into the stall reveals that Milo, a 14-year-old boy who believes himself to be a
vampire
A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead humanoid creatures that often visited loved ones and c ...
is actually
drinking the blood of a dead man, having ambushed the man as he was using the bathroom. Milo then leaves for his home,
public housing
Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...
in Brooklyn, New York where he lives with his older brother, Lewis. Once home, he adds his victim's stolen wallet to a secret bag of cash. He habitually watches movies about vampires and extreme
graphic violence
Graphic violence refers to the depiction of especially explicit or detailed acts of violence in mass media. It may be real, simulated live action, or animated.
Intended for viewing by mature audiences, ''graphic'' in this context is a synonym ...
and writes in a
visual journal. The journal includes an ongoing list of rules that he believes vampires must follow, like the time of day appropriate to hunt. The next morning, Milo throws up the blood. A neighborhood
gang
A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...
frequently torments Milo, at one point holding him down and
urinating
Urination is the release of urine from the bladder through the urethra in placental mammals, or through the cloaca in other vertebrates. It is the urinary system's form of excretion. It is also known medically as micturition, voiding, uresi ...
on him. That night, while on a hunt, Milo becomes acquainted with another 14-year-old named Sophie who has just moved into the neighborhood.
The next day, he again encounters Sophie as a group of drunken teenage boys
are gang raping her. Once they leave, Sophie begins
cutting herself and Milo leans in towards Sophie's bloody arm before she stops him. Sophie admits to having contemplated
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death.
Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...
, and in response Milo cryptically tells her that he could not do so because it is "against the rules", alluding to the contents of his visual journal. Sophie finds him strange, yet endearing, and they return to Milo's house. When Milo shows Sophie a video of lambs being
slaughtered, she abruptly leaves. The next day she explains she had seen similar videos and has bad memories associated with them. He visits the park where he sleeps beneath a bridge and ambushes a hobo and drinks his blood.
The next day he asks Sophie out for movies where they watch ''
Nosferatu
''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' () is a 1922 silent film, silent German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who ...
''. Sophie claims
Twilight
Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...
is a better film and suggests Milo watches it. She later gifts Milo a copy of the first Twilight novel. They talk about their families, revealing both parents of both of them are dead, specifically that Sophie's grandfather
beats her and Milo's mother
killed herself when he was younger. Milo confides in Sophie that he still doesn't know where her grave is located because his brother, Lewis, will not discuss it. Before the events of the film, his mother killed herself and Lewis walked in on Milo drinking the blood from her freshly slit wrists. Sophie tracks down Milo's mother's grave and she and Milo visit it.
Later, when a wealthy young white couple ask Milo if he can help them acquire
"C" or
"molly", Milo leads the boyfriend to the basement of a nearby building. This location is revealed to be the meeting place of the gang that harasses Milo. Offended at the boyfriend's expectation of drugs, the gang kills him as Milo watches through the window. The police pick up Milo and inquire about a recent crime, telling Milo that if he does not tell the police what he knows about the crime, they will tell the neighborhood gang that he is a
snitch. The police then escort Milo back home. The gang, having seen this, grow distrustful of Milo.
Sitting at the
Coney Island
Coney Island is a neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach to its east, Lower New York Bay to the south and west, and Gravesend to ...
docks, Sophie and Milo discuss
God
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
, and what they would do with a million dollars. She tells him she would move in with her cousin in
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
. The two consummate their relationship and live together in Milo's apartment for a few days until Sophie stumbles across Milo's hunting journal. Shaken, she leaves. In the mean time, Milo
stalks a man to his home,
exsanguinating him and his young daughter before stealing some fine china. On the way home, Milo weeps and contemplates jumping off of a tall building.
The next day, Milo gives Andre, the leader of the gang, his collection of goods stolen from his victims to regain his trust. Milo then visits a police station and turns them in. In therapy, he explains to his therapist that he has recently been drawing a lot of pictures of the sun. He buys Sophie flowers and they leave for a day of fun at Coney Island. At night, sitting beneath the docks at the beach, he
imagines killing her and sucking the blood out of her neck. Upon departure, he gives her the money she needs to move. She asks him to move with her but he refuses and leaves. At home, he watches a police
shootout
A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...
during which the entire gang is arrested.
The next morning, Lewis asks Milo if he heard that Andre's gang had been arrested. Milo feigns ignorance and asks Lewis, who used to be in the army, if he ever killed anyone. Lewis responds that while he had seen many body parts, he never killed anyone. Sensing that something is upsetting Milo, Lewis tells him that whatever he's feeling guilty about pales in comparison to all of the horrible things other people are doing to each other. Milo thanks him, and goes for a walk, where he is immediately gunned down by friends of the gang members he had arrested. Unaware that he has died, Sophie unsuccessfully tries to contact Milo before boarding the bus to Alabama alone. As Milo is bagged and
autopsied, Sophie reads a letter from Milo. In it, he reveals that he read Twilight, but thought it "sucked", and that he has given vampire suicide some more thought. While he maintains that vampires cannot kill themselves directly, he alludes to his own actions and explains that he believes that a vampire could kill himself indirectly by orchestrating something that he knew would result in death, especially if motivated by a desire, but inability, to not hurt others. The last shot of the film is Milo's freshly buried casket.
Cast
* Eric Ruffin as Milo
*
Chloe Levine as Sophie
*
Aaron Moten as Lewis
* Carter Redwood as Andre
* Danny Flaherty as Mike
*
Larry Fessenden
Laurence T. Fessenden (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits inclu ...
as Drunk Man
*
Lloyd Kaufman
Stanley Lloyd Kaufman Jr. (born December 30, 1945) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. Alongside producer Michael Herz, he is the co-founder of Troma Entertainment film studio, and the director of many of their featu ...
as Hobo
* James Lorinz as Detective
* Victor Pagan as Deli Regular
* Anna Friedman as Stacey
Reception
On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 85%, based on 55 reviews with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''The Transfiguration'' tells a quieter, more deliberately paced tale than genre fans might expect, but for those with the patience to let it sink in, it offers its own rewards." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average rating of 65 out of 100, based on 16 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Transfiguration, The (film)
2016 films
2016 horror films
2010s teen drama films
American teen horror films
American teen drama films
American vampire films
2016 directorial debut films
2016 drama films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films
English-language horror films