Monstrous Regiment of Woman

We thought we'd start Octoboo with some Frankenstein - The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster (2023). OK, we actually watched Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein first, but that's just our usual kick-off (we own on DVD). 

It stars young Laya DeLeon Hayes as Vicaria, the titular black girl. Her mother died by police violence, her brother died in a gang, and she sees a problem: Death. She decides that, since death is a disease, it must have a cure. And she will be the one to find it. So she goes to school where she antagonizes the teacher (her father comes in and tells the teacher to open her mind and "TEACH!"), inspires a little girl in the neighborhood to learn science, gets called Mad Scientist by everyone, and tries to stay clear of the local gang, run by Denzel Whitaker. She also spends time in the lab she has set up in an abandoned factory, where she has dragged her brother's corpse.

She also spends time with her family - her older sister (-in-law), who has a little daughter and is pregnant with another baby, and her father, a righteous man having trouble coping with the loss of his wifew and son. He's been hitting the crack again, supplied by Whitaker's gang. 

So Hayes finally re-animates her brother, they raid the crack stash. A gang member catches them, and the creature does his thing. Later, the gang comes after Hayes, demanding to know who her big friend was. She doesn't tell, and they force her to work in their drug lab. But somehow, she's lost track of the creature.

You kind of want some kind of revenge fantasy, where Hayes and her re-animated brother start killing gang members, maybe some white cops, teachers, etc. But that isn't this movie. It's a more realistic look at life in a small black community. The violence and danger are part of a system, a system that's too big to handle with a monster. It requires a cure - for death.

It's also about Hayes' character, Vicaria. She's smart and serous, but also a little girl. She doesn't say "It's alive!" when her re-animation is successful. But she laughs a mad scientist laugh that's also a little girl's giggle.