Directed and written by Jonathan Cuartas
Starring Patrick Fugit, Ingrid Sophie Schram and Owen Campbell
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
Unrated 
Available to rent on demand June 28th

by Matt McCafferty, Staff Writer

I like when a filmmaker decides to go with a lengthy title that most people will struggle to remember when they go to talk about it. There’s a boldness to this decision that I can’t help but admire. This one will probably be referred to as “that vampire movie with the Almost Famous guy in it.” Obviously you can’t judge a film by its title, but My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To is the kind of name that lets you know you are in for a pretty unique experience. 

Dwight (Patrick Fugit) and his sister Jessie (Ingrid Sophie Schram) are the caretakers of their frail, sickly younger brother Thomas (Owen Campbell). Taking care of him is no easy feat. Thomas requires fresh human blood in order to survive. Dwight and Jessie are strapped with the responsibility of bringing home fresh blood to their brother on an almost nightly basis. To get that blood, the two of them go out at night to find people to kill. In the opening scene, Dwight picks up a homeless man, brings him back to his house, kills him, and with the help of his sister, drains his blood into a bucket. The two of them go through the motions of this gruesome process completely emotionless like it’s just another day. For them, this act is nothing more than what needs to be done to keep their family together. 

The three of them live in a dark run-down old home that serves as the setting for most of the film. Thomas is stuck living here in a constant fragile state, always waiting for new blood. He also yearns for human connection other than what he has with his brother and sister. He’s just a teenager who wants to go out, make friends and have fun like anyone else at that age. Naturally, you can’t help but feel sorry for him. This certainly isn’t the first movie where we find ourselves sympathizing with a vampire. Let the Right One In first comes to mind for this sort of thing, especially since it has a younger vampire at the center of its story. The one thing that’s different here is that Thomas is portrayed as having an illness. He’s visibly sick in every single scene. There’s also no explanation for his condition. All the vampire stuff is implied.

What I ended up loving most about this movie was its slow and deliberate pacing. Director and writer Jonathan Cuartas takes his time with every scene in a way that forces us to spend a lot of time entrenched in the strange everyday lives of these odd characters. Even something as simple as showing Dwight doing his laundry to clean his bloody clothes is an example of how Cuartas won’t let us escape even the simplest of tasks that manage to feel so disturbing. It also helps that the three lead actors are terrific at making all of these quiet scenes feel so engrossing. Patrick Fugit especially needs to be in more leading roles. He would fit in perfectly in any Jeremy Saulnier film.      

There’s not much here in terms of gore or any kind of special effects. All the big moments that would require effects cut away to take place off screen. If you are looking for a gory vampire film, some of these edits might frustrate you a bit. If you get locked into the story the way I did, you will likely appreciate this as a unique family drama more than anything else. Even with a lot of the vampire stuff feeling very familiar, Cuartas still manages to find a way to make this movie feel like something of its own.