What happens when you take the elements and ideology of Attack the Block and add vampires, you get Black as Night. A bunch of mismatched teenagers must band together to fight the vampires that have now plagued their town. Their adventures are filled with blood and guts and of course vampire lore. Thankfully Black as Night doesn’t rely on vampire tropes, providing new moments and some generally insane plot points.
Black as Night focuses on Shawna played by Asjha Cooper, her best friend Pedro played by Fabrizio Guido, and her crush Chris played by Mason Beauchamp. The film focuses on political issues and doesn’t mince words about it either. The vampires are preying on the homeless population, and because they’re the homeless population, no one is paying all that much attention to them unfortunately. This is all the plan of Babineaux played by Keith David, who is the head vampire behind the chaos that is unfolding in this small little town.
What makes Black as Night work so well, are the performances from the leading cast. The vampire hunters bring their all to their performances, ensure that they back the scares and thrills to the feature to make sure the audience is believing everything that is being delivered. As well Keith David is fantastic as usual and brings a level of comedy and horror to the film that the energetic actor always punches.
Black as Night, has a fun script provided by Sherman Payne and wonderful direction by Maritte Lee Go, however slightly suffers from backing itself into a corner with the story. Sometimes the story jumps in narration and feels slightly jarring as things are not always explained, however the entertainment is more than enough to make up for it. Black as Night has the perfect popcorn night scares for Shocktober.
