Staffel X

Filmtalk about:

First Kill (2022)

Creator: V.E. Schwab

First Kill (2022) seems to be another modern take on the Romeo and Juliet story – but with some twists to it: The two lovers are girls, one black and one white, and their families’ feud is based on the fact that Juliette’s family are vampires, and Calliope’s family are monster hunters. The series portrays a white, pseudo-aristocratic family as the vampiric »monsters« that are back to haunt the southern town Savannah. However, Juliette seems to be appalled by her hereditary monstrosity and her duty to kill people in order to fulfil her family destiny. The monster hunter Calliope, on the other hand, cannot wait to kill her first monster in order to fulfil her family duty. When the two of them meet, it seems that they have a connection that is stronger than the prejudice and hate their families try to stir in them, and the question arises of what makes a monster a monster and whether monstrosity can be found in all of us. I would argue that this series is not only about the century old trope of love against all odds, it also contains notions of racial difference and racism, colonialism, otherness, monstrosity, and a queer female way out of stereotypical thinking and struggles for power. It also shows how blurry the boundaries are between same and ‘other’ and that both reside in everyone. This is especially compelling in a US American context, since discourses of racial difference and otherness have always been at the heart of US American identity.