Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster’

9/24/2023

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Laya DeLeon Hayes as Vicaria in Bomani J. Story’s THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER. Photo Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the motion picture, ‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster’. Also, this piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.

There comes a point in our lives, where we must face a very unsettling truth. In that, we have limited time on this Earth, and eventually… we and everyone we love dearly… will die. We don’t know when that will happen, we don’t know how… but it will happen, and sadly we often face this truth and must reconcile its reality when death comes knocking at our door. Because that really is when the universe makes it clear that we are finite and fragile and well, when we reach this point… everyone goes through quite the unique reconciliation process. Some for instance, quickly come to understand what this means and use the loss in question to live life to the fullest. While others… will take a great deal of time to make peace with death before embracing the wonder of life and there are some… that struggle mightily with this.

Because the thought that everything ends and that new chapters in our own story eventually stop being written… can be terrifying in nature, for a bevy of reasons that are quite personal in nature. But these are the folks that we need to worry about when the truth about life is exposed to them. Simply because, these are the folks that will get lost in the fear and do things that are unfortunate in nature to protect themselves and their emotions from the power of loss and the trauma it creates. To the point where they can become lost souls. But sadly, it isn’t always easy to watch over those folks. Because sometimes, they put on a good show and keep their emotions to themselves, or… their living situation doesn’t allow for them to feel anything but a need to move forward. But regardless of the reason, not addressing something so important can result in some kind of disaster, as evidenced by a brand-new feature on Shudder entitled, The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster.

Which this film explores, by introducing us to a brilliant teenager named Vicaria who seems to have it all. For she is brilliant, excels in school and everyone that is near her admires her for her tenacity and her intelligence, and they firmly believe she will excel in life once she moves out of the rough neighborhood she currently resides within. But Vicaria is harboring a powerful and dark secret. In that… she is deeply shattered by the loss of her mother and her brother to gang violence in her neighborhood, and because of the nature of her life and the need for her to push forward and carry her own weight in what remains of her family’s household… she has yet to process that pain. To the point where it twists her wondrous mind into believing that perhaps death can be cured, prompting her to experiment with the corpse of her recently deceased brother… to bring him back to life. A move that is successful from a biological standpoint but proves to be costly otherwise since dear Chris… is simply not the same man anymore.

Poster Art from THE ANGRY BLACK GIRL AND HER MONSTER Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder Release.

Which is… the perfect plot in which to explore the central theme in question. Because truly, Vicaria is drowning in her grief when we meet her in this story and broken from it and because she cannot reconcile the reality that everything dies and everything ends in this life, or the pain surging through her bones courtesy of the trauma that comes from loss… she becomes a lost soul, a tragedy of sorts that creates all kinds of pain, courtesy of Chris. Who kills with impunity through his worst instincts and his own unresolved anger, which costs Vicaria everything really. All of which is some powerful commentary on how… when we let people slip through the cracks and suffer in silence and let that pain begin to control their thoughts… they become destructive forces. The kind that burn everything down in their lives out of fear and hurt people in the process. Not necessarily in the manner that happens here, but we all understand that living in fear and pushing others away… is no way to live and it can be as devastating as what we saw here. All of which serves to teach us, to confront the pain and reconcile it, and accept that hard truth and live accordingly. Otherwise, the end result will be unfortunate in nature.

Of course… this movie also helps us to learn… to be there for those who are struggling to do this, because they are indeed in need of that helping hand and since we’re all in this together, there’s no harm in being kind in that manner. Yet what is genuinely fascinating about this motion picture, is that it offers so much more than mere commentary on our struggles with mortality. For this is also, a Black Horror feature, and it definitely includes observations and commentary regarding the Black Experience in America, and that too… is powerful and poignant. Since it speaks to the violent relationship between Black communities and local police departments, and how Black communities are ignored and punished through systemic racism, and how that ignorance helps to give rise to problems in Black communities, as spoken to by the heavy of the film.

If anything, all of those elements combine to create one poignant and powerful horror feature. One that yes, is supremely scary as well. Courtesy of Chris the zombie, since he represents all of our fears regarding death and inspires the horrors that can come forth when we don’t resolve our issues. Plus, the horrors of the world are put on display here as well through the unsavory men that sow chaos in Vicaria’s neighborhood, and we’re also treated to some uncomfortable and nauseating gore. All of which makes this… a must-see horror film. For it is timely, intelligent, and creepy and supremely thoughtful. For it does indeed remind us of that which we cannot escape and the importance of using that reality to live life to the fullest… so that we aren’t lost to the world in a manner that is far worse than death itself.

Watch ‘The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster’

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