My Sucky Teen Romance

I caught a showing of My Sucky Teen Romance at a beautiful theater called The Paramount while attending SXSW 2011. There was a big crowd gathered pre-show so my expectations were high. I had also heard a bit about the director Emily Hagins who was supposed to be this young amazing filmmaker. I had seen a documentary about her making her first movie when she was 12 or 13 on the documentary channel. In short, my interest had been stoked. First let me say this movie is not bad - if taken in context. It was clearly a low budget indie and looked the part. It was obviously shot using minimal equipment, and with a couple of exceptions it was clear that the actors were not professionals. The feel of the story seemed too familiar to me. While the plot lines of My Sucky Teen Romance and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie version) are not the same - having a bunch of teens at a comic convention dealing with vampires reminded me a lot of having a bunch of teens at a prom dealing with vampires. If you keep in mind that this movie was made by a high-school student then it was pretty good for a high-school student film. Where it failed for me was that it played a major festival, when it clearly should not have. SXSW is a hometown festival for Austin, Texas and the director, Emily Hagins, is a hometown Austin girl. But my guess is, this is likely the last time she will be able to play the I'm-a-teen-movie-maker card and get away with it. In short, if you want to see a good high-school student film that was clearly made on a shoestring then you should definitely check it out. However, if you want to see a movie that stands on its own merits, without the gimmick of a child director, then you will probably want to pass and invest your time elsewhere.

I wasn't expecting much and found myself captivated...give it a chance. It's a group of young people poking fun at the whole vampire craze going on right now....very tongue in cheek. It's a fun little jaunt through the more intelligent teenager's perspective. The director is young, modest and hopeful. The cast is engaging and very likable. Think an independent version of scary movie, but a lot smarter and more subtle. The director has a raw, organic talent that eschews the traditional training from film school. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of her work as she matures. Some day, those who've worked with her will be look back on the experience fondly.

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. Saw this film at CONvergence the other day and it was the highlight of my weekend. The story is pretty simple: Teenage supermarket employees get bit by rocker vampire, and then arrive at a typical science fiction/fantasy convention ( I'm not going to spoil the rest). The fun of this movie lives in the detailed writing. At first glance it might appear this is typical Twilight type teen romance junk ( and in fact I think those fans might like this as well) but it is actually more in the style of a movie like Scream, in that it ponders the conventions of Vampires, and especially the movies they come from. Fun cameos, a great young cast, a couple good kill scenes (although I could have used a little more blood) make this a fast paced fun film. I would recommend this movie to fans of Troma to Twilight and I can't say that about many films.

With all the vampire movies being released it is really hard to find one that feels new and worth your time. Director Emily Hagins burst onto the scene at 12 years old with her film Pathogen that won the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund grant from the Austin Film Society. Her latest My Sucky Teen Romance tackles the popular teenage vampire genre, but throws in a comedy twist in an attempt to create something new and fresh.

My Sucky Teen Romance follows a 17 year old girl and her friends as they attend a local sci-fi convention. There she is accidentally bit by a vampire and forced to not only come to terms with her transformation, but try and stop the other vampires before they go on a killing spree. Make no mistake, this is a low budget film and it shows on a lot of levels. That being said, if you watch it for what it is and just enjoy it, it is actually a pretty entertaining movie. It has the vibe of Kevin Smith's Chasing Amy on a much smaller scale in both budget and acting quality, but you can see everyone here is doing what they can to deliver a fun film. The story is pretty simple and while nothing all that original, Hagins adds just enough of a twist in the idea to make it still feel different than most of this genre. The acting is average at best, with a few of the performances a bit silly, but if you look at the budget and the fact that this is an unknown inexperienced cast, they actually did pretty well. There are some great jabs at the Twilight films as well as some other pop culture genres that will appeal to the convention audience.

This is actually a fun film if you can put aside the fact that it is on a lower budget scale. It looks like someone set out to make a fun vampire teen film and succeed with little to work with. If you are looking for something a bit different in this genre then give this film a chance. Worse case you can see the early works of Hagins who will probably surprise people once she is given a bigger budget and star power.

http://www.examiner.com/movie-in-dallas/bobby-blakey

I had the chance to watch this flick during a hot Saturday afternoon in London, in a floating cinema (2013) and I had a good time for two reasons:

-The film is directed by a young and smart teenage girl who has seen many vampire movies. -I could ask her a question through a Skype interview. She told me she was influenced by classic vampire movies such as The Lost Boys and mostly Near Dark. That is a plus because clearly she knows her references very well.

The gore is minimum but very well done and you can say that she likes blood in her stories.

I give it a 5 because it is a naive film oriented for a young audience.

Let's keep an eye to this girl, she may do good things for our genre in the near future.