[once every full moon, contributing writer and local aspiring lycanthrope marrrrrrr takes a break from wearing fur coats and stalking stray cats in the middle of the night to ingest some raw meat and watch a picture show — the only way to tame the savagery of both beast and man. this is Midnight Movies.]
film: Closet Monster (2015)
food: shrimp & jalapeño ramen (the official midnight movie pride meal?)
pre-game: canadian drama/horror by first time director stephen dunn. uses “elements of body horror as a metaphor for internalized homophobia” according to wikipedia. been on my list for a while ever since i saw the trailer which looked bonkers. am excite.
post-game: burgeoning sexuality can frequently be a terrifying prospect. risks abound, both physical (STI/pregnancy) and emotional (rejection/humiliation/vulnerability). now imagine all of this is compounded by a widespread sense of (sometimes violent) disdain. what happens when a bodily pleasure is intertwined with a continuously reinforced sense of shame?
and then, as Stephen Dunn’s Closet Monster asks, what happens when that shame starts to manifest itself suddenly and bloodily?
in other words, there’s awkwardly fumbling your way through a drunken hook-up, and then there’s shoving aside your partner to projectile vomit screws and lug nuts into a sink.
oscar madly (Connor Jessup in an expert performance) is a semi-closeted aspiring special effects make-up artist. he spends most of his spare time preparing the portfolio for his college application with the help of friend gemma (Sofia Banzhaf), having telepathic conversations with his pet hamster Buffy (voiced by Isabella Rossellini), and working at a local hardware store, where he first encounters flirtatious co-worker wilder (Aliocha Schneider). what follows is a rude and gory awakening to desires he’s long repressed (partly because of the constant barrage of homophobic comments from his father, peter (Aaron Abrams), and partly because of the brutal hate crime he witnessed as a ten year-old shortly after his parents’ separation).
inspired by Dunn’s real life (a series of hate crimes in his native St John’s had a “strong impact” on him growing up), Closet Monster succeeds most when it embraces strangeness and complexity. oscar’s father isn’t uncaring or unloving. some of the early scenes of peter and a young oscar playing (peter is a large contributor to oscar’s active imagination and gothic aesthetic) are even sadder in retrospect after their relationship deteriorates due to peter’s increasing callousness and oscar’s growing boldness. similarly, oscar’s mother brin (Joanne Kelly) isn’t juxtaposed as a saint. her decision to leave their family is understandable, but the pain it causes isn’t waved away. (buffy the hamster was her gift to a young oscar in an initial, clumsy attempt to soften the blow.)
visually, the same maxim applies. some of the most striking images result from the movie leaning in to the nightmare/dream aspects (a quick flash of bloodied rebar during an attempt at self-pleasure is still sticking w/ me). conversely, an ecstasy-fueled party scene is edited about exactly how you’d expect: quick pans, strobing lights and a little slow motion for good measure.
i was expecting more of a horror, but it’s probably best characterized as a coming-of-age tale with elements of dark magical realism. and while the climax will seem familiar (young person learns to use the tools of their trauma to confront it), the bizarre situation and the visceral anguish it creates linger, like the scent on a worn uniform shirt. like the telepathic echos of a beloved pet.
rating: exploring an abandoned building, what you think is a nightmarish creature gives you a start. the creature doesn’t react at all. you step closer and find it’s only a mask. on close inspection, the craftsmanship is exquisite, and it fits frighteningly well.
