The Things We Cannot Change – review

Director: Joshua Nelson

Release date: 2022

Contains spoilers

The correlation between vampire and addict is quite a common use of the vampire as metaphor, possibly most famously in the Addiction. It is therefore not too much of a leap to tie the vampire into self-help groups and this occurs in films such as Vampires Anonymous or Jonathon Nasaw’s novel the World on Blood.

This then is a vehicle that looks at vampirism within the bounds of a 12-step programme, the title coming from the prayer associated with such programmes that goes, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.” Vampirism, within the film, is a metaphor, which is why I dislike the ending and that’s a shame because the film itself was a great little budget genre piece to that point.

Kristen in session

We get the stories of various vampires through the 12-step programme in vignettes and meet characters such as Kristen (Jenn Nobile) she attends the group, run by Dr. Abraham (Richard Rampolla), and her story is one of keeping her condition hidden – especially from her husband, living with a loathing of what she had become. She describes how a friend of her husband came over, and when her husband left the room, he excused himself to go to the bathroom but winked at her suggestively.

caught feeding

Angry that he would flirt so openly with her, in her marital home, she followed him into the bathroom. Hubby goes looking for them (as they are gone from the living room, of course) and hears noises, which he clearly interprets as sexual, from the bathroom. Opening the door, he sees the friend in the tub, a wound at neck and her with clouded eyes and fangs. He is, of course, shocked, not knowing whether to call the cops or a divorce lawyer. This is a woman he thought he knew and yet she had kept the addiction hidden so well. She goes to group and he actually attends at times with her.

it seemed so cool

We also get a young girl, whose mother discovers both where her attitude had come from and a cadaver in her closet, as well as two attendees who decide to be each other’s support and fall off the wagon together, one of these actually sought out being a vampire because it seemed so cool but now regrets her choice. We meet two corporate workers who vow to only eat the guys who are douches and one ends up eating her boss, at work, when he sexually harasses her, and many more. We also meet Veronica (Laura Lemire), silent at meetings until she makes unhelpful comments and eventually is barred. She believes that vampires should embrace their needs and lifestyle. She also knows how to kill a vampire.

Richard Rampolla as Dr Abraham

This brings us neatly to lore. These vampires can go out in the sun and, whilst there is a comment about them not being among God’s favourites, it is unlikely that religious paraphernalia will impact them – after all they say the prayer quoted above. Most are unaware of how a vampire can die – there is comment about trying to stake oneself in the heart failing. Addicted to blood as they are, they cannot imbibe vampire blood and it will kill them – in fact being injected with it will kill them.

licking a severed limb

The effects are minimal. The vampire look of fangs and clouded eyes is effective enough. We do see the vampires with body parts, licking the blood and, at one point, a flesh stripped torso. These effects were perhaps less than good but they are used sparingly. The film relies on the actors and dialogue more than anything else. The dialogue is well written and the acting solid throughout. My issue came at the end.

in pain

The film used vampirism as a metaphor and this is great but, right at the very end, the film turns that around and shows us the characters again as a variety of different addicts (be it painkillers, alcohol or varieties of illegal narcotics). This felt too on the nose, that the power of the message had been in the metaphor and by stripping that back the film undermined itself. Perhaps for some audiences that on the nose nature is needed? It was too unsubtle for my liking. The film does return to its metaphor very briefly, following this, and I wouldn’t damn the film for the last few minutes but it was an issue in my book. 6 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.

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