- Directed by Bomani J. Story
- Written by Bomani J. Story
- Stars Chad L. Coleman, Denzel Whitaker, Laya DeLeon Hayes, Reilly Brooke Stith
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMq_ctM7HZA
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A brilliant person believes that death is just a state of disease that can be cured, so they set about bringing the dead back to life in their secret lab. If that rings a bell, it should. This was a skillfully made take on Frankenstein. We enjoyed it a lot.
Synopsis
Vicaria tells us about her mother being shot, and then the violence spread,
infecting her brother Chris. He died as well. She’s sick of violence and death. “If death is a disease, then there’s a cure, and I’m gonna find it.” Credits roll.
We see that Vicaria is really into science and is smart. She’s also got a room with a locked door. She tells a little boy that it’s full of bodies; some alive, some dead. We cut to school, where Vicaria annoys her teacher. The teacher has her removed forcibly. At the PTA meeting, the teacher comments on the family’s last name, which is vaguely European. Donald, Vicaria’s father, really chews out the teacher who called the police on his daughter.
We see Vicaria’s notebook, “The Modern Prometheus,” by Vicaria F. So that’s what the “F” stands for! She goes to her secret “lab” after school, and she really is experimenting on dead bodies. Her brother Chris and other gang-killed neighbors. She sews pieces of Chris together. Later, there is talk in the neighborhood about several missing bodies.
That night, there’s screaming and shooting in the neighborhood. Jerome, one of the local kids, gets shot and dies as Vicaria watches. As the EMTs try to shock the boy back to life, she gets the idea that she needs to add electricity to her project. She quickly assembles a machine to use all the electricity in town to charge up the dead body in her lab. ZAP! ZAP!
Is it alive? We hope she’s gonna say “it,” but she doesn’t. She doesn’t get to say anything because the creature wakes up and knocks her out. When she wakes up, Chris is there. He’s huge and has dreadlocks. “I’m gonna show you who killed you and what’s killing us,” she says. She takes him to break into Curtis’s car, which contains drugs, and that all goes really badly for Curtis.
In the morning, she’s grabbed by Kango, the main drug dealer in the neighborhood. They know she was involved in the drug heist last night. He threatens her. Kango wants her to work in his drug lab unless she tells him who hurt Curtis.
Vicaria goes back to her lab to find the monster has broken out. Vicaria’s friend Aisha has a daughter, Jada, who talks about her new friend, Chris. Aisha was Chris’s girlfriend, and Jada is his daughter.
That night, Kango has one of his men follow Vicaria to Chris’s former apartment. There’s a peephole into Aisha and Jada’s apartment; that’s how he was talking to Jada.
Aisha invites Donald and Vicaria over for dinner. They all argue about the system holding them all back. Vicaria can see Chris watching them through the peephole. The police beat on the door, interrupting the meal, but Donald runs them off.
Outside, the cops run into Chris and shoot him several times, but he pounds the cop into a pulp. Donald goes home from the party and finds blood in his kitchen. Thinking it’s an intruder, he follows the blood trail into Chris’s room and sees his dead son.
Vicaria goes to see Kango, who hears that Curtis has died. His lieutenant, Jamaal, kills him in anger.
Meanwhile, Chris kills Donald. Vicaria comes home and knows what’s happened. Jamaal follows her, wanting revenge for Curtis, but Kango isn’t actually dead yet and tries to stop him. In the middle of this, Chris shows up and feeds Jamaal his machete.
Vicaria and Kango hide in the bedroom, and she admits that she’s the body snatcher. Vicaria thinks electricity might kill the monster. She runs to the lab for equipment while Kango tries to get to her bedroom for the other piece they need.
Vicaria runs into Jada, who has blood on her, and warns that Chris is coming. Kango drops off the piece of equipment but dies immediately; he also ran into Chris on the way there. She sets up the equipment just as Chris arrives. He comes inside, and she fries him.
Jada comes in and asks if Vicaria can bring back their family. “You can bring them back; I know you can.” Vicaria thinks for a minute. “They are still fresh.” The two get to work…
Commentary
It’s a modern, gender-swapped, racially tense update to Frankenstein. Little Jada is the creepiest kid we’ve seen this year.
The acting is good, the situation is dire at best, and the characters are all believable. The only thing that really takes a stretch is the fact that a teenager in high school could bring back the dead. But on the other hand, it’s way out that even an adult scientist with full medical training and a full lab could do it, too.
It’s definitely not a new story, but it’s a fun new twist, and I did like it.