My Sucky Teen Romance (2011) User Reviews

Good for a young audience who may want to get into the Horror genre.

[insomniac_rod · 5/10 · 7 February 2015]

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.

This is a high-school student film that does not stand on its own

[funone · 2/10 · 29 March 2011]

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.

If this were made by a thirty year old it would be considered rubbish.

[foxonmovies · 1/10 · 30 March 2011]

I am a bit torn as to how to review this movie. The reason being, I discovered when I watched it at South by South West this year that it was made by a girl still in high-school. I think it was Robert Altman who said "anyone who even completes a move should win an award." Being a filmmaker, I agree with Altman. With that said, the young filmmaker deserves an award for getting her feature made. On the other hand, the film that she completed does not deserve an award. In fact after having sat through it I wondered why it was even playing at a major festival. I am still wondering that. The movie which is about a teen girl who is bitten by a vampire at a comic convention, reminded me too much of the 1992 film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It appeared to me that there was no effort to cast any professional actors as the acting was amateurish throughout. Like most (maybe all) ultra-low budget Indies, there was no effort at set design. The movie looked like what it was, a low budget movie created by high school students. Seeing as it was made by a high school student I don't want to be too harsh, but in all fairness if this movie were made by a thirty year old I can't think of anyone who would consider it anything but rubbish.

The budget wasn't the problem, folks.

[emdoub · 3/10 · 22 September 2012]

Yeah - anyone who completes a movie should get credit for it, and for this to be completed by a high school kid is pretty impressive.

This does not make it a good movie.

Other reviewers cite the low budget, but that didn't detract from the movie; in some films, it adds to the charm of indie movies.

The dialog was the worst of it; stilted, awkward lines that nobody who was actually in a high school would believe came from human people. That many of the actors clearly didn't believe their lines didn't help any.

The idea was good; a vampire is running amok at a SF convention, and the only people who know about it are the teens who have to try to stop him. It's formula, but it's really tough to make a horror or teen comedy without it having been done before, and the twist of it being at a SF con, where vampire costumes are everywhere, gave it a chance to be fresh.

It would have helped if the SF Con was at all believable. I expect that the writer/director got some help from people who have actually gone to SF Cons, but didn't believe them; every degrading, negative stereotype was portrayed, few of which I've ever seen at a Con. "Your Tribbles and You"?? I've seen films that make fun of SF Fandom, and do it well; there's things to make fun of, but to do it well, it's important to know what you're making fun of, and Ms. Hagins clearly did not know her subject.

She clearly knows teenagers better; she got two decent characters into the script, and paired them with some passable acting skill. Her other teen characters were, sadly, such cardboard cutouts that the people portraying the characters could not connect with who they were supposed to portray; the audience has no chance of taking them seriously, either.

Pretty good, as a film school project, and the author/director shows some promise. But it's a school project, not something ready to release to the movie-going audience. It may look better as a double feature with something by Ewe Boll, but that still wouldn't make it something to recommend to others.

Vampires hit the convention in My Sucky Teen Romance

[rgblakey · 7/10 · 3 September 2012]

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

Fresh Blood

[mark_st-2 · 10/10 · 3 July 2011]

.

. 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.

Fun Flick

[MikeMcCutchen · 8/10 · 6 April 2011]

Wow, I'm shocked at the other reviews. I also saw it at SXSW and feel like I'm the one taking crazy pills after reading those negative reviews. Part of getting asses in seats is some kind of hook no matter what the budget of the thing is, it's some great story that peaks your interest. Sure I went in wondering what kind of a film could a 17 year old make and that got me in, but that thought completely fizzled out after about five minutes into it.

The movie's fun regardless of whatever budget they were working with (I could care less). I absolutely found it charming, quirky, and the fact that a kid who can't even order a beer yet made it just impressed me more. There are moments where I thought "Hmm, I'd approach that differently," but I don't think it has anything to do with age/budget - I just think that's how the director wanted to go about it, which isn't to say it's bad just different. Would I give anyone in this an Oscar? No. Do I think they're going for an Oscar though? No. I think they set out to make a fun flick with goofy characters and vampires tossed into the mix and I absolutely think they succeeded.

I don't know when or how this thing's coming out, but I've talked my friends ears off about the flick and can't wait for the DVD/BluRay/whatever.

The movie's fun. If you can, check it out.

Surprisingly funny and smart

[mblackman-2 · 8/10 · 28 April 2011]

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.

This rocks

[SanteeFats · 8/10 · 29 June 2013]

Elaine Hurt plays a cutie named Kate, her glasses help to disguise her cuteness. She is looking for a boyfriend but can not seem to find the right one. The whole movie changes when she is accidentally bitten by a vampire that is pushed into her when he is just trying to kiss her, not a bite. Her friends find out and try to help. Her male friends relate it to a video game in their heads but she has a girl friend who tries to keep it real. Then all the friends get together and try to find an actual cure for her problem. The vampire that bit her is not a bad guy, he doesn't kill anyone and sacrifices himself to turn Hurt back to a human. All in all this movie was a lot better than I thought it would be when I recorded it. This movie is not that serious and therefore it is funny with some nice looking female leads. I actually enjoyed it very much.