PLOT SUMMARY: Shawna, who has self-esteem issues, is bitten by a vampire. When her mother too is bitten and dies, Shawna makes it her mission to take down all the vampires with the help of her best friend, her crush, and a new friend.
If you find yourself thinking of a theme for horror, chances are you'll be thinking about ghosts, vampires, and zombies. It's always one of these, isn't it? Take another minute or two and you will come up with other themes like demonic possessions, curses, exorcisms, monsters, and aliens.
So when another anthology of Welcome to the Blumhouse was announced, it is no surprise that this time a vampire story was included.
And this time too there are teens involved although the protagonist has self-esteem issues instead of being the center of attention to every supernatural creature. There are no extremely good-looking vampires who anyone lusts after. This time the vampires are the true villains that must be defeated.
BLACK AS NIGHT Movie Plot
In the opening scene, a homeless man is gathering cans when a group of people approaches him. The homeless man is possessive about his cans and makes a fuss. The men show him who he's messing with. They attack him and go straight for the neck. Yup, they are vampires.
The next scene introduces us to the protagonist Shawna who is teased by her brother Jamal for being too dark. She has a best friend Pedro who has his own issues about being of a different race. Shawna has a crush on Chris and makes it obvious with her lovey-dovey eyes.
Shawna's mother Denise lives in a housing project Ombreaux which is also where the homeless man was attacked. When she goes to visit him, she hears a growling sound coming from there but thinks nothing of it. She also raises eyebrows at the preacher giving a speech to protestors.
When she goes to meet Denise, she finds her mother to be a little high and desperate for a little money to no doubt buy drugs. Shawna gets upset but her mother shows her a locket with pictures of the family inside. Shawna still gets upset and leaves but then sees Chris entering the building and wonders what he's up to.
Pedro then tells Shawna to come to a party with him and then makes a fuss when he notices what she's wearing. Chris is also there and Shawna is encouraged by her friend to make a complete utter fool of herself. When asked, Chris refuses to ever being at the Ombreaux. The girls around him sneer unnecessarily while Shawna is hit with her complexes again and thinks he may only like fair-skinned girls.
She leaves, utterly humiliated, and walks down the empty dark streets and sees a homeless man being attacked. She tries to intervene and is attacked immediately and bitten on the neck. Don't be a hero, they say. They are right.
Shawna does act a bit out of character here considering she's supposed to be this awkward teenager yet she shows bravado.
Shawna rushes to her house, dismisses another scathing remark about her complexion, and goes into her room.
The next morning is riddled with anxiety for Shawna who expects to be disintegrated by sunlight. Her father comes in and questions her sudden eccentricity, then pulls apart the curtains. Shawna finds out she doesn't turn into dust in sunlight.
Next step: find out more about vampirism and in order to do that she enlists Pedro's help who directs her to a girl who runs a book club about vampire novels, Granya.
Shawna finds out she hasn't completed her transformation because she hasn't died after being bitten by a vampire.
Shawna then goes to see her mother who is also bitten by a vampire. Except sometime in the night she must have overdosed because her transformation seems to be taking place evident by the veins on her face and her eyes turning. Curtains are pulled apart and she bursts into flames and then jumps out the window.
After the funeral, Shawna's father tells her about how much her mother loved her and thought she was a miracle after she survived a hurricane. Shawna is given a locket and she vows to avenge her mother's death.
Her crush Chris quickly gets on the wagon to help Shawna get her revenge.
Granya too gets roped in along with Pedro. Soon enough the newly formed group of vampire slayers decide that killing the head vampire LeFrak might turn all his victims into humans.
It is decided that Shawna and Granya would pose as prostitutes and infiltrate the mansion where the vampires are. Granya advises Shawna to focus on a memory when an attempt to brainwash is being made.
The girls dress up in their most flashy clothes and enter the mansion only because they look young to the doorkeeper.
LeFrak attempts to brainwash Shawna who knows exactly what is happening and focuses on a memory of her mother. The other uses garlic to knock out the vampires. After killing LeFrak, the victims don't turn into humans and Shawna realizes that LeFrak isn't the head vampire.
They soon find out that the preacher who has been helping protestors is the actual head. Turns out he used to be a slave who used to be kept in the mansion and now wants some sort of revenge by forming a vampire army.
There's a taxi cab driver who keeps following Shawna as well who turns out to be a vampire too and knows that the preacher is in fact a vicious vampire who wants to do exactly what the teens have guessed. He tells them he will help too and makes Shawna feel good about her dark skin by telling her how in the olden days, the darker the skin, the more beautiful a woman was thought to be.
The climax nears.
BLACK AS NIGHT Ending Explained with Spoilers!
The friends decide the preacher is hiding in the secret tunnels of the mansion. Granya backs out immediately. She likes vampires but only the ones that are hot and glitter in the sunlight. This is too real for her.
Pedro thinks he's found the courage to attend college in spite of his reservations before regarding his race.
Chris and Shawna consider becoming a couple but will make it official after the evil plaguing this town is abolished.
Pedro gets beaten in the fight and is bitten by vampires.
Shawna stuffs her mother's locket into the preacher's mouth and he chokes because it is silver and he hates jewelry. Shawna then stakes him.
She later sees Pedro and is saddened by his demise.
After some time has passed, Shawna is looking forward to Chris coming over when there's a knock on the door. She opens it to find Pedro there who took a long time to transform into a vampire, unlike the others who transformed in a couple of hours.
Black as Night had some interesting moments but lags with over-explanation regarding the vampires' motives and agenda. The pacing gets bogged down by the overuse of plots regarding drug abuse and racial discrimination as well as the teens' complexes.
In terms of horror, the first half has a couple of frightening sequences whereas the second half dilutes the horror elements by focusing on teen problems.
Scare Scale: 2.5/5
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