The surprising main message of Vampires vs The Bronx – Looper

PerRodriguez's recent video chat withNOWMagazine, culture-consuming gentrification is the real villain raining terror overVampires vs. the Bronx,which makes his choice to represent that evil with exceedingly pale-skinned vamps all the more ingenious.

Rodriguez claims the film was born from a desire to craft "a fun adventure film for kids who look like me and my friends growing up in the Dominican Republic ... the kind of kids who aren't really represented in these kinds of stories."

With diversity becoming a key feature ofVampires vs. the Bronxon its way to the screen, Rodriguez states that the shifting cultural landscape of certain New York neighborhoods quickly became a central theme: "All the conversations were similar in how much the neighborhood's changing and how much the identity is being sucked out, and I just made the connection to vampires really quick."

As far as the film's Bronx setting, Rodriguez chose the borough because it represents "a huge immigrant community. There's so many different types of people there it almost feels like the last frontier as far as where gentrification will go next."

Jaden Michael (who stars as Miguel in the film) echoed Rodriguez's insights, noting in particular that Vampires vs. the Bronx isn't so much about the borough itself changing, but the people effected by those changes. "That was something that was really important to us. It wasn't a story about the Bronx. It was a story about people who go through gentrification. It doesn't have to be a black community. It doesn't have to be a Spanish community. It can be any community.And that's the main message."

Here's hoping people hear that message loud and clear as they feast onVampires vs. the Bronx.

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The surprising main message of Vampires vs The Bronx - Looper