Amazing Fantasy Fest 2025 Coverage
Vincent review
A bullied teen, a missing man and the strange ice cream man at the center of everything.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
Vincent
Directed by David Noel Bourke
Screenplay by David Noel Bourke
Starring Herman Knop, Mikkel Vadsholt and Joachim Knop
Vincent Review
Vincent opened day five of this year’s Amazing Fantasy Fest. It was accompanied in the program with the subtitle “A story of supernatural friendship”. I haven’t seen that used in any of the online listings or promotional material floating around…but it’s a perfect description of what the movie is about. Given the way the story unfolds, however, it may be putting too much on the table too soon. Of course, I opted to lead off this review by including it…so here we are.
Vincent doesn’t let you know what it’s about straight away. It crosses into a few different genres before forming into its own tone that includes feelings from each of them. It’s a coming of age story…and a supernatural story…and a mystery. At first it’s all these things in different scenes. Eventually, it’s all those things at once. Vincent does a beautiful job converging its roads and creating something unique.
The titular character of Vincent is a strange ice cream man (Mikkel Vadsholt). He literally connects the two plots of the film as if they’re stops along his route. On one path we have the coming of age story of the bullied Viggo (Herman Knop). The teen forms an unlikely friendship with Vincent who offers a caring shoulder for him to lean on. The other road leads to a missing person investigation that Vincent is a person of interest in. Flashes of Vincent drinking blood from a bag fill gaps between the stories…alerting us to something unnatural at play.
Vincent isn’t the only person connected to both Viggo and the missing person. Viggo’s father (Joachim Knop) is a part of the investigation. He suspects Vincent for the same reason most people would. There’s something…strange about him. The blood drinking that we’re privy to doesn’t do a lot to disprove the theory. Viggo believes in him though. In fact, given his problems at school and with his father…Viggo needs him. You can see what “a story of supernatural friendship” fits the theme of this story.
Vincent makes an interesting gambit with its titular character. Vadsholt does an excellent job not revealing whether you should believe the way Viggo views him…or the way his father does. His rusted out ice cream van and off-kilter behavior suggest we shouldn’t trust him. That and, of course, the blood drinking. Whenever we listen to what he has to say, however, it’s easy to believe in Viggo’s version. He seems kind. But he is creepy. There is no denying that there is something unnatural about him. But does that mean it has to be evil? The missing person’s case looms over any potential answer. Is Viggo walking into a trap? Is his father blinded by appearances and ignoring facts? Vincent has answers to these questions. They aren’t always the expected ones…but they all play perfectly towards the way the movie begins to feel the farther we get into it.
Vincent begins with a quote from Boris Karloff who famously portrayed Frankenstein’s Monster for Universal Pictures. “The Monster was my best friend” it reads. It’s another sign that Vincent is offering something different…and another perfect encapsulation of what that is. There are some beautiful dark fantasy/horror elements here. A story that heads in its own direction…taking you along for a ride that’s a bit different than the norm. It even manages to evoke some of that childlike wonder you might associate with the classic Universal Monster it references in its opening quote. That’s about as high a compliment as a movie can be paid.
Scare Value
A mystery, a supernatural story movie, a coming-of-age movie…Vincent effortlessly fuses different genres to create something new. It’s a beautiful movie that threatens to turn into something darker at every turn. Who this odd ice cream man is stands at the center of everything. He doesn’t look like a man you can trust…but it feels like you can. A perfect trap…or something beyond our understanding? Vincent has an answer to that too.
