**This post contains spoilers**
The Story- After her brother Chris’ (Edem Atsu-Swanzy) death, Vicaria ( Laya DeLeon Hayes) promises to cure the disease that destroyed her family. The disease? Death. Vicaria plans to resurrect Chris, and she succeeds, but the results are disastrous.
Vicaria runs into trouble with a gang leader named Kango (Denzel Whitaker) and his ruthless right hand man, Jamaal (Keith Holliday). Meanwhile, Chris’ rampage grows more violent and bloody, as Vicaria fights to protect a pregnant Aisha (Reilly Brooke Stith), Jada (Amani Summer), and her father, Donald (Chad L. Coleman).
My Thoughts- Vicaria is a smart kid, the mad scientist with a good heart. She fiercely stands on what she believes in, and there’s no denying Laya DeLeon Hayes delivers a strong performance in the leading role. Yeah, she’s a smart-ass, who’s quick with clever comebacks, but Vicaria’s environment punishes anyone with a passive personality, so she has to be tough to survive.
Amani Summer brings a positive spark to the cast. She’s sassy, and her peculiar friendship with Chris’ is ironically hilarious. This carefree little girl is friends with The Monster, and for the vast majority of the movie, Jada is really the only person, who Chris consistently communicates with for some kind of normalcy.
Chad L. Coleman has one of the big highlights here, during the scene, where Donald and Vicaria are at a meeting with Vicaria’s teacher, Mrs. Kempe (Beth Felice). You can see the fire in his eyes, and really hear the anger in his voice, as he’s tearing into Mrs. Kempe. A really good scene that shows a supportive and loving father standing by his daughter, and Coleman delivers a good emotional performance overall.
Donald is a broken and exhausted man working two jobs. He developed a drug habit to cope with the loss of Chris and his wife. The scene, where Vicaria finds a picture of Chris face down in his room was a nice touch. You have to believe Donald couldn’t handle looking at the picture, because it’s just too painful.
TABGAHM pushes the idea that death is a disease, a disease that causes catastrophic emotional damage. Donald is struggling to be the leader and the provider that Vicaria needs. Vicaraia is trying her best to live a normal life, but she’s angry, because death has taken so much away from her. Add in the fact that she’s still a kid, and you can understand why Vicaria is having a lot of trouble processing losing her brother to gang violence and her mother’s death.
The struggles and setbacks in the black community are prevalent throughout TABGAHM, and the social commentary works. Vicaria mentions Valerie Thomas as an inspiration, and while she has big goals and high expectations for herself, Vicaria is not ignorant to the fact that she lives in a rough neighborhood.
There’s a scene, where Aisha is trying to stress the importance of knowing the differences between the truth and lies for Freeman (Dale Cordice Jr.). The problems with public schools presenting a fabricated version of history, and to illustrate the differences between the truth and lies, Aisha shows Freeman two books: one on Malcolm X, and another book on Christopher Columbus. Aisha also stresses the importance of learning to Jada, pushing a routine for her to learn the alphabet.
Vicaria tries to help one of the neighborhood kids named Jerome (Ellis Hobbs IV). She wants to steer him away from Kango and his gang, but Jerome feels the need to join the gang because of a lack of options. As a child, Jerome is still smart enough to know he’s in shark infested waters, and no one is coming to save him.
Vicaria scolds Kango for poisoning and flooding the community with drugs, but Kango’s simple counter argument is, that he’s just a product of his environment. Kango is cold hearted. He knows he can capitalize off of being a drug dealer and a respected and feared man, who doesn’t care about taking or ruining lives, while lining his own pockets.
Well, you had to know bad things would happen, when Vicaria finally resurrected Chris. Chris’ gruesome killing rampage quickly turns into a big problem, and it gets to a point where a conflicted Vicaria has to make a tough decision: she has to kill Chris….again. Chris leaves a mark on whoever he touches, a noticeable diseased mark that gives the appearance of burnt, rotting flesh. Truly an eerie and ironic twist, because Vicaria wanted to cure death, but she’s directly responsible for spreading the disease throughout the neighborhood.
It’s a gut wrenching decision to make, and it’s easy to understand the struggle Vicaria is going through. Yeah, you could say it was a foolish plan to try and bring someone back from the dead without consequences. But you have to remember, Vicaria is just a kid, who was heartbroken over her brother’s death. It wasn’t fair that his life was cut short at an early age. IF she had the slightest chance to bring Chris back, Vicaria was going to take it, and no one was going to stop her.
Everyone’s dead! Or is there still a chance to bring them back to life? Towards the end of the film, Chris has already murdered anyone in his path, but after an unexpected hint from Jada, Vicaria realizes she still has a chance to revive the people Chris killed. Vicaria comes to the realization that Chris’ victims are still “fresh.”
The reason why Chris’ resurrection was a failure is, Vicaria waited too long to the point, where Chris was basically just a rotting corpse. Chris could recognize his family, but overall he was too far gone, a zombified killing machine without a conscience. Vicaria makes an important point before Chris dies. Chris wasn’t truly a monster. People around the neighborhood and the police told him he was a monster in one form or another. They were terrified of him, so naturally Chris had a violent reaction to the backlash. But the spirit of the kid, who loved his sister and his father was still alive, especially in Chris’ final moments.
TABGAHM ends with the start of a happy reunion, when a coherent and resurrected Aisha wakes up after her death. Vicaria has this big smile on her face, because she realizes she finally got it right. Vicaria can successfully bring her family back from the dead the right way. Considering everything she had to suffer through, Vicaria definitely deserved a happy ending.
The Angry Black Girl And Her Monster is a refreshing and inventive version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a brutal and gory tale of vengeance, featuring an emotional story about the hardships of dealing with death. Laya DeLeon Hayes is fantastic in the leading role. And TABGAHM doesn’t hold back on the bloody gruesomeness and gross out moments. It’s more than enough to pull a reaction out of you, especially the scenes, where Vicaria is preparing Chris for the big resurrection.
I’m glad writer/director Bomani J. Story decided to take the path for a happy ending. Severe mistakes were made, lessons were learned. Vicaraia’s life would’ve drastically changed either way. But the ending really balanced things out for a film that’s heavy on a harsh reality, and a seemingly never ending cycle of death and hopelessness.
Rating- 8/10
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