Well, the 2021 horror movie "Black as Night" came without me ever hearing about it, and I stumbled upon it by random chance. And with it being a new vampire movie, of course I needed no persuasion to sit down and watch it.
While writer Sherman Payne managed to put together a good enough storyline and plot, the movie did suffer from being just-another-run-of-the-mill vampire movie. Yeah, while entertaining enough, the storyline just didn't differentiate itself from the numerous similar vampire movies out there. At least you know what you will be getting in for here, when you sit down to watch "Black as Night".
I must admit that I found the movie's cover rather intersting, and it was what initially made me single out this particular movie. Director Maritte Lee Go managed to take the somewhat generic script and make it watchable enough for a single viewing.
The acting in "Black as Night" was good, and lead actress Asjha Cooper (playing Shawna) definitely carried the movie rather well. I was not familiar with her prior to this movie, but she really managed to stand up and did well. I have to admit that I was rather thrilled when I saw that Keith David was on the cast list, and he does bring his usual dark charms and usual demanding attention while on the screen thing with him, for better or worse. One thing that was disappointing, though, was the fact that Keith David wasn't really given as much on-screen time as he deserved, or as the character he portrayed deserved.
Visually then "Black as Night" was good. The movie deviated from the usual vampire lore with long upper fangs only for the vampire creatures. Instead, the vampires portrayed in "Black as Night" had rows - both up and down - of sharp fangs, making them look more feral. A nice touch, for sure. And I like the effects when a vampire was slain, that was definitely good entertainment.
"Black as Night" is watchable, for sure. But the contents of the storyline and the fact that it is essentially a rather generic vampire movie makes it unsuitable for more than a single viewing.
My rating of "Black as Night" lands on a bland five out of ten stars. There was just too much squandered potential here.
