October Horror Challenge - The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023)

Today's list prompt is "Reanimated." I initially thought about giving Herbert West some love. The next logical choice was to go with a zombie classic. However, I remembered hearing about The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster recently and I thought I'd check out this reimagining of Frankenstein. 

Also, while I'm not going for numbers this year, I watched Rec 3: Genesis last night (despite it not being one of my challenge films).

Plot

In this modern take on Frankenstein, Vicaria is a brilliant young who sees death as a disease that can be cured. Having lost her mother and brother to a community full of violence, police brutality, and drug use, she decides to use her great intellect to reanimate her brother. While she is success, she soon learns that he is not the same man he was before. 

Review

This sci-fi horror flick was written and directed by Bomani J. Story. This was his directorial debut, and it's one hell of a debut. The story takes Frankenstein and examines it through a modern urban lens. Vicaria, played by the amazing Laya DeLeon, focuses on the humanity of Frankenstein's mission. She is one of the most empathetic take on the character I've seen. For her, curing the disease of death, will help her family. She lives in a brutal world and deals with lack of options and racism daily. For example, the fact she goes to a white school is seen with disdain. And at that school her teacher refuses to pronounce her name properly, even after being corrected. The teacher says it is easier to say it her way. The film calls out other problems faced by low income urban families. 

For example, the antagonist Kango (played fantastically by Denzel Whitaker) mentions addiction is an emotional issue not a substance. He says that if there were more mental health facilities rather than police precincts near he would be in a different line of work. Another strength of the film is that things aren't black and white either, later in the film it's shown that Kango takes care of an ailing family member and seems to have an overall level head. He is even remorseful for leading to the death of Chris.

This is a coming of age movie about family and community. It's about mourning and healing. It focuses on the lives of black Americans, but it doesn't beat you over the head or preach. Its a fantastically executed take on a horror classic.

Chris, the monster, played by Edem Atsu-Swanzy is frightening and menacing. He wears a hoodie, which means we only see parts of his stitched flesh, but this works and is thematically on point. While I would have liked to see more of him, I think the movie was balanced and the focus on Vicaria was the right choice. 

In Your Game

Though his creation is a tragic one, I felt the best game-able bit from the film was stats for Chris, himself. This is similar to flesh golems presented by Bloat Games before, but there are some differences. 

Source

Chris (Construct)

Armor Class: 12

Hit Dice: 60 HP (10 HD)
Move: 12
Actions: 2
Attack: Fist (d6+d4 electricity)

Special: Non-magic weapons deal half damage (rounded down), Toughness +3, Golem*, Regeneration** 

Bonuses: +6 to Melee attacks, +4 to Melee damage

Alignment: Neutral

Morale: 8

Terror: 15 
HDE: 7

Items: Hoodie

*Golem: All Golems are immune to mind-affecting effects, Madness, Poisons, Stuns, being Sickened, Diseases and Critical Hits

*Regeneration: Chris regains 3 Hit Point at the start of each of his turns. If Chris takes more than 20 electric based damage in one turn his Regeneration ceases to function for 24 hours.

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First Time View: 2

Total Watched (Including Non-Challenge Horror Movies): 3