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.
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