Sink Your Teeth into ‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’: An Interview with Ariane Louis-Seize and Félix-Antoine Bénard

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For some, remnants of the teen vampire pop culture genre have been left to rot in a time capsule, containing Team Edward tees and emo CDs. But it’s hard to deny that blood-suckers are back, from Olivia Rodrigo’s earworm to a new-wave of Twihards, vampires are undeniably here to stay.

First time feature filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize has a new contribution to add to the canon; combining her love of mumblecore sensibilities with a taste for blood, the Quebecois director’s new film Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has already screened to sold out cinemas at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the coveted director’s award at the Venice Film Festival.

The dark-comedy follows Sasha, a sensitive young vampiress whose supernatural growing pains are at odds with an affinity for empathy (she can’t kill anyone unless it’s consensual!). Enter Paul, a boy with emotional baggage and plenty of malaise, who stumbles upon Sasha in group therapy. Can they save each other from their own suffering? 

Ahead of its October 13th release, we chatted with Louis-Seize and star Félix-Antoine Bénard about the film’s genesis, picking a perfect song for a scene, and the teen vampire phenomenon. 

Let’s start from the beginning: how did you develop the story for Humanist Vampire?

Ariane Loius-Seize: It's a mix of what I like in films — vampire films and supernatural stories but in a more indie-filmmaker way, as well as mumblecore and coming of age. All those things that I find that touch me the most.. [led me to] the basic but fun idea about this vampire who can’t kill and she decides, “Oh, maybe if I find someone who wants to die, it's a win-win situation and everyone would be happy.” But she just wants to make sure that that person really wants to die, and that's where it complicates things. I pitched it to my good friend, screenwriter Christine [Doyon], and we had so much fun together. I didn't want to intellectualise — we were more focused on the feeling[s] and we wanted to make each other laugh. 

Félix, how did you react to reading the script? Did you connect to your character, Paul?

Félix-Antoine Bénard: My agent sent me the audition. I saw the title and I was like, “Okay, I gotta get this one.” There's something very nice about this character [Paul] that's on the line of comedy and drama, and the film is on that line. 

A: You put a lot of love in this character. From the beginning, you were really solid and believable in your character. It was a hard character to cast because I was looking for something really precise, but also not precise at all. It was about the vibe. 

F: The right amount of weirdness.

A: But not too weird that we can't connect with him. He’s such a nuanced character because clearly he's very sensitive and emotional, but outwardly, he seems numb. Was there any other prep you did to get into that headspace?

F: It's a character that wants to die, but why does he want to die? This is something we discussed. It's not really about depression; he can’t find his place in life and he doesn't know why he wants to live. A sentence Ariane would often say was "Paul can’t find a meaning to his life, so maybe he needs to find a meaning to his death.” When Sasha is asking for help. Paul is like “Okay, I can help. I can do something with my life.”

A: The prep of the role was basically just talking a lot about the internal thoughts and struggle of Paul. He always tried to die, but he never did it because when he's on the edge of dying, he feels something. It’s the only thing that makes him feel something.

The lighting, cinematography, and set design for the film were all so specific. What went into building Sasha’s world?

A: I make all my short films with Shawn Palvin, the cinematographer of the film. We built our visual style together. We already have things that we really like, like precise framing and dark but colourful lighting. He has a way of lighting the scene like a painter. I like all those little details, like the lighting in the eyes that pops and gives an extra something to the character. For the art direction I really like texture. Vampires are so old, so it's nice to play with a lot of stuff from different eras. I had lots of meetings with my art department all together to just create something cohesive and playful. It's really a collective work.

I was so excited when I saw this film listed on the TIFF programme because, like many others, I love vampire movies. Ariane, I'm wondering why you felt compelled to tell a coming of age story through the lens of vampires, and why you think people are so interested again in these teen vampire stories.

A: I really like to talk about teenage years because teenagers are so intense. Everything they feel is more intense and they are usually so dramatic. But at the same time, when you're older and you look at the first breakup and all the firsts, you know that it was just a step and you got through it.

I like to imagine those characters because of the intensity of their feelings, and I thought that it was nice to use a parallel between the vampire world and humans. They pretty much live through the same things, just a little bit different. For example, when Sasha’s fangs come out for the first time, it's like her sexual awakening. The parallel is clear, but it's nice to just change the [portrayal] of the first time you want to have sex with someone. And why are people compelled by vampire movies? I don't know..

F: This year at Venice there were two other vampire movies - vampires are definitely back.

Words: Hannah Ziegler