Bringing real life social issues into a fictional story is a double edged sword. It can make the world feel more vibrant and more engaging, and the same time, it can distract from the story that's being built. Such is the case with Netflix's Vampires vs. the Bronx. The narrative of vampires biting off more than they can chew in the infamous New York borough is simultaneously lifted up and bogged down by the real life issue of gentrification.
Vampires vs. the Bronx is a comedy horror film that recently debuted on Netflix. It tells the story of a group of kids from the Bronx who start noticing weird things happening around their neighborhood. Businesses are being bought up at an alarming rate and their owners are disappearing. Led by Miguel Martinez, the kids discover vampires are behind everything and take them on to save their home.
The core of the vampires' plan is to buy up businesses and take over the neighborhood. They want to build condo towers of nests, set up businesses that are friendly to vampires and feed off of the remaining locals, of course. The vampires' entire plan hinges on no one from outside of the Bronx caring about the crazy events happening in the neighborhood, which probably isn't too far from the truth when compared to the real-life borough.
The entire strategy of these vampires is essentially a metaphor for gentrification, defined by Merriam-Webster as, "a process in which a poor area (as of a city) experiences an influx of middle-class or wealthy people who renovate and rebuild homes and businesses and which often results in an increase in property values and the displacement of earlier, usually poorer residents." The reality of that process is that it impacts many neighborhoods negatively, pricing the current residents out of their own homes. It also ends up forcing out places and businesses of cultural and local significance.
The base of the story is the gentrification of the Bronx, which has been an ongoing problem for decades. It would honestly have been impossible, not to mention unbelievable, to have done this story without including gentrification in some fashion. But the problem with Vampires vs. the Bronx is the heavy-handed metaphor of the vampires using gentrification as a tool to get their way and how it dominates the story.
The allegory of the vampires as literal blood-sucking developers taking over the neighborhood to make it better for their own kind is not exactly subtle. Again, including this aspect makes sense, but the movie keeps hitting on the same note over and over again until it feels like the film has to remind itself that it's about vampires, not gentrification, and it takes away from the storyline. The inherent negative commentary on gentrification should have been the backdrop for the story, not the story itself.
While Vampires vs. the Bronx is overall a fun and engaging movie, the dual personality of the narrative doesn't always mesh the way it should have. Gentrification took over the plot the same way it took over the Bronx, and it's made neither of them better. However, the importance of gentrification is undeniable to any story about the Bronx, whether that story is fiction or nonfiction, and it will certainly come up again in a sequel.