In the end, all has been for nothing, and the vampire genre's exciting possibilities have been wasted on a messy script and messier intentions.

| Jul 4, 2018

The Transfiguration is a small movie harboring big ideas about loss and how to make up for it.

| Aug 10, 2017

Trying hard to play against expectations, writer-director Michael O'Shea casts a black teenager in the lead role of an urban vampire film. It's a decision that ultimately works in the film's favor, but only up to a point.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 5, 2017

The effect is thin; less creative genre-smashing than a drab lack of commitment to either its mumblecore or horror sensibilities.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 23, 2017

A lovely new addition to 2017's splendid gallery of superior art-horrors.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 21, 2017

This film, directed by Michael O'Shea, is less a horror movie than a coming-of-age tale as Milo meets an equally troubled neighbour, Sophie, played by Chloe Levine.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 21, 2017

Bold and brutal in shocking spurts, the indie horror drama from writer-director O'Shea is a startling debut that leaves a fresh mark on the genre while celebrating its forbears.

| Apr 20, 2017

This is not a horror film, exactly, but a dark drama in which a self-imposed curse is the only reprieve from a neighborhood where violence is routine.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 20, 2017

O'Shea lets his story burn slowly - the better, it turns out, to lodge in the mind.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 20, 2017

The Transfiguration is a defining vampire film of the mid-2010s. An acutely observed study of social/emotional deprivation, but also a gripping, disturbing horror movie. And, yes, it's 'realistic'.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 18, 2017

A solid slice of indie horror, though the similarity to other films is hard to ignore.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 18, 2017

It's a horror film without much in the way of real scares, but its matter-of-factness just makes it scarier.

| Apr 11, 2017

Mr. Ruffin must carry the film, projecting interior activity and suggesting information where the script (by Mr. O'Shea) does not. That he imbues the film with a weight greater than its words is a testament to his skill as an actor.

| Apr 6, 2017

The Transfiguration gradually reveals itself to be a coming-of-age tale, one whose central figure reaches a point at which he's forced to reckon with the evil lurking within himself.

| Apr 6, 2017

While at times it seems like O'Shea is trying to dismiss the humanity he's simultaneously aiming to uplift, this is an intriguing effort with a great lead performance.

| Original Score: 1-5 stars | Apr 4, 2017

The film is at its strongest when navigating the story's uneasy relationship to its genre.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 2, 2017

The film's metaphorical language summons another sort of monstrosity that it never entirely unpacks.

| Mar 13, 2017

The Transfiguration is a character study first and foremost, spending all of its time with Milo. Problem is, he's so opaque that as a protagonist, he's completely impenetrable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 15, 2016

A quiet bite, but one that leaves its mark.

| May 14, 2016

Michael O'Shea wears his influences on his sleeve in this downbeat, sporadically engaging slow-burn modern vampire fable.

| May 14, 2016