Vampire-obsessed nascent serial killer loner Milo (Eric Ruffin) is ostracized by his classmates at school and tormented by gangs at home as a "freak", but none of them have realized that has moved on from killing animals to drinking the blood of human victims whose wallets also provide a revenue stream for himself and his struggling older brother Lewis (Aaron Moten, MOZART IN THE JUNGLE) who has looked after him since the deaths of their parents. His only friend is Sophie (Chloe Levine, INNOCENCE), a self-mutilating orphan who lives in the same building with her abusive grandfather. They provide each other with solace and ways to pass the time, and Sophie thinks Milo's intense interest in vampires is dark but ultimately harmless. As Chloe's life with her grandfather becomes unbearable and tensions mount between Milo and the neighborhood gang after he witnesses a gang initiation murder and is questioned by the police, the two become more alienated from their surroundings and seek an escape. Sort of an urban-set take on George Romero's MARTIN with knowing nods to other vampire cinema (Milo likes NOSFERATU or would even prefer LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - not LET ME IN to Sophie's recommendation of TWILIGHT), THE TRANSFIGURATION has so much potential that the viewer wants it to be so much better than it ends up. Ruffin and Levine manage to give depth to their emo-ish characters even as they engage in different forms of suicidal ideation, and Moten also does admirably with less screen time, but everything is just too deliberately "low key" from the muttered dialogue and muffled scoring to the wavering handheld camerawork and distancing wide shots. The only real element of mystery is whether Sophie will adapt Milo's habits, ultimately become another tragic victim, or sacrifice her blood to help Milo end his existence a la the climax of NOSFERATU (which they see in a silent theater), but the real ending is more predictable, drawing not from vampire cinema but from hundreds of gang movies, which is perhaps appropriate as a means of "real life" intruding on Milo's private world. The film is ultimately more intriguing in its potential than it is fully-developed or satisfying.