The Transfiguration

Amid the current glut of vampire movies, writer-director Michael O'Shea's The Transfiguration brings an unusual twist to the tired genre, although his script obviously owes a bit of a debt to George Romero's 1978 cult favorite Martin. Milo (Eric Ruffin) is a shy African-American teen who is bullied by thugs in the Queens projects where he lives with his elder brother, a sullen veteran. Milo finds refuge in vampire lore, and—believing himself to be one of the undead—he kills strangers in order to secure the blood that he thinks he needs for food. Milo's obsession frightens Sophie (Chloe Levine), a girl who befriends Milo even though he dismisses as unrealistic the Twilight series, which she likes. Meanwhile, his attempts to frame the gang members who harass him for crimes that he himself commits ultimately dovetails with his conviction that a vampire can only escape his condition by circuitous means. The Transfiguration is a low-budget film, slow-moving and visually threadbare, but O'Shea's gritty, naturalistic approach makes its farfetched premise more persuasive than you might expect, and the young Ruffin delivers a quietly intense, understated performance. Likely to appeal more to art house patrons than genre devotees, this should be considered a strong optional purchase. (F. Swietek)