This Is Why You Can’t Skip First Kill

You never forget your first…

Based on the short story by V.E. Schwab from the Vampires Never Get Old: Tales With Fresh Bite anthology, First Kill follows the tricky act of falling in love for teens Juliette (Sarah Catherine Hook) and Calliope (Imani Lewis): One's a vampire, the other's a vampire hunter, and both are ready to make their first kill.

The first thing that really stands out about First Kill is its aesthetic. The theme song alone — Stephanie Mabey's “The Zombie Song” — does a really does a great job of portraying the vibe of the show. With vibes of Romeo and Juliet meets Disney’s Zombies meets Killing Eve, First Kill is a bit campy and doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Another highlight of the show is the vampire lore they set up, which was something I hadn’t seen before. They introduce the ideal of Legacy vampires who are born vampires, not made. They are nearly impossible to kill, they can go In the sun, eat human food. Their blood can paralyze you, they can create other vampires, their bites fate, and their bites can create a psychic connection between them and the person they bit. They take this lore all the way back to the Garden of Eden with Eve and Lillith. The Snake convinced Eve to take an apple from the Tree and gain knowledge, while offering to bite Lillith to give her eternal life… turning her into a vampire.

At the same time we’re also learning about the monster hunting family that Calliope comes from who are members of the Guardian Guild, an organization to protect the human world from monsters. I loved they they went the monster hunting vs just vampire hunting root because it allows them to add other monsters to the series down the line. There’s also some interesting parallels between the vampire family and monster hunting family — each family is building up strong female leaders and trying to prepare their daughters for their first kills, which represents a coming-of-age so to speak. They also bring up the idea that the real monster depends on who is telling the story. For the vampires, the monster hunters are the villains and vice versa.

When it comes to the relationship that develops between Calliope and Juliette, I was so excited to see this fun, supernatural story led by a lesbian relationship, but the chemistry wasn’t full there. Sarah Catherine Hook was really believable and seemed fully invested in the romance, but Imani Lewis was missing that spark of connection between the two of them.

While First Kill wasn’t perfect, it was a ton of fun and the world building can be taken to another level as they continue explore the unique and interesting lore they’ve set up for this world. The finale episode was a bit confusing and messy and some things just made no sense, but at the same time, they set up a lot of intriguing places to go, including more monsters and a possible cat and mouse hunt between Calliope and Juliette in a possible season 2.

First Kill is streaming on Netflix.