“The Angry Black Girl & Her Monster” | Insights with Filmmaker Bomani Story

“The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster” is about Vicaria, a brilliant teenager who believes death is a disease that can be cured. After the brutal murder of her brother, she embarks on a dangerous journey to bring him back to life.

The film stars Laya DeLeon Hayes as Vicaria, Denzel Whitaker as Kango, Chad L. Coleman as Donald, Reilly Brooke Stith as Aisha, Keith Sean Holliday as Jamaal, and Amani Summer as Jada. It was written and directed by Bomani Story.

Story talked with Jill Munroe about developing the concept for the film based on Mary Shelly’s “Frankenstein” and centering it around a teenage nerdy Black girl who is into science.

“First, it starts with the literature. I think many people have lost sight of the monster being just a side character in the book; the book is about Frankenstein, right? The book does an incredible job of showing the rise and fall of this man or mad scientist. So what I wanted to do with this was refocus that and bring it back to where the story belongs, which is in the hands of the lead, our lead Vicaria. So, I really wanted to ground her and justify her ambitions, and, based it in reality as much as I possibly can, because when I read the book, I felt like, you know, Victor Frankenstein, like she was writing it for the time that she was in, that’s what I felt like when I read it. And it felt more like a drama like this tragedy, this tense situation for this man who did something crazy.”

Story continued, “so it started with the literature, and then as it branched out, it also became about, I have two older sisters who I grew up with, who are basically my first contact with intelligence. Because when you’re young, you don’t want to listen to anything your parents got to say, so they’re not gonna sound smart to you, but older sisters who are close enough in age for you to get along with them, but far enough away for you to respect their intelligence. So they are my muse.”