The Transfiguration

When Milo was young, his mother died in his flat in the projects. All he had left was his brother who is an Iraq war veteran and his neighbour and only friend Chloe. The problem is that Milo thinks he is a vampire. Well he might think he is or he might actually be. You see Milo has been attacking people and drinking their blood....

Some would describe THE TRANSFIGURATION as a cross between MOONLIGHT and the late George Romero's masterful MARTIN. The Context for this piece is just as powerful as the first and just as genre defining as the second. You see these comparisons help get bums on seats but they fail to tap into the real reason this film is so very good. Firstly the film is very timely. The vampire genre went through flux and waxed then waned. It is at a point where even self parody is empty. THE TRANSFIGURATION comes along and questions the world it has been left with. The dimensions of obsession for the cult followers. Secondly like MARTIN it is observing and making observations with hindsight. The rules of operation and refinement that a character goes through within the genre are played out here in detail. Like the vampires of legend and stage and screen, Milo is defining his own self and finding out his rules of engagement. The vampire here is a helpful metaphor for coming of age.

Thirdly we have the idea of 'race' and that is MOONLIGHT inspiring the trend. Milo is a young black man who is not a gang member (in so much as he is not in a criminal element other than a vampire). He is also defined by his race and when he is dropped off by the police late in the film, it is the remark of how and where that is critical to this. Fourthly we have the flashbacks of the mother in sickness. The defining lack of adult influence has and does shape a generation. Here it is used to decipher the world Milo has descended into. The lack of definitive adult role models is paramount also to the radical slip into vampirism. Finally the dual world of the brothers in so much as they are two bodies of the same origin but define their lives via American history and American obsessions (War and Film respectively) .

The DVD is very good. The Directors commentary is the highlight as O'Shea is a very interesting and informed film maker.