For fans of bizarro cinema within a horror-film context, look no further. Not preposterously "far-out" as some of those idiotic, depraved, glue-sniffing, obscure Euro-trash hipster flicks from the 70s (always rated highly due to hipster bee-hive swarm-voting), but weird enough for the average film-goer. So if you're a meth-sniffing self-loather looking for something truly decadent and morbid, this might disappoint you because it isn't nearly as misanthropic as you'd like it to be.
Best described as a slow-paced version of "Rosemary's Baby" and "X-Files" with a touch of "Jacob's Ladder". In fact, the movie's main flaw is that it moves at a snail's pace some of the time. Could and should have been 20 minutes shorter. The other, though lesser, problem is Natasha Lyonne who seems to play quite a few scenes for laughs. Perhaps the director wanted her to play it that way (which would mean he's quite confused and clueless), or what's more likely is that the screenwriter wasn't smart enough to realize that her usual "chummy BFF teen" shtick doesn't work within this frame-work - in which all the other actors say serious lines. Only she seems to play her role almost as if it's a semi-sitcom - and she's the most suffering character by far. How do you write goofy lines for one character but have everyone else behave seriously? Never liked her, to be honest. (Guess how she got into movies? Three-letter word.)
So who says there are no movies for women, huh? Almost all the main characters are female, and they're well fleshed-out and not stereotypical. Sure, Lyonne plays incredibly ditsy street trash, a mindless drug-addicted skank of the lowest order, but this isn't B-movie characterization whereby everyone fits into neatly defined, very boring, predictable boxes.
Which brings me to why this isn't nearly as suspenseful as it could have been. None of the characters are likable or even marginally moral, except Meg Tilly's, so why the hell would we give a hoot what happens to Lyonne? Her disregard for her potential baby and her own health are so extreme that I sort of figured that no matter what happens to her she had it coming. How do you identify or sympathize with someone that far gone in decadence and stupidity? Darwinism at work, if you ask me. I always struggled to feel sorry for hardcore junkies.
Now for the loony finale. "With your body we can create a new race that will allow us to supply an everlasting demand for submission" says the mysterious black guy. But what does that even mean? Please analyze this statement, filter it through this movie's logic and script, and then tell me in all honesty that it means anything. It just sounds like some random sci-fi/horror gobbledygook that's intended to cheat the viewer out of a real explanation by sounding cryptic and pulp-fictiony.
The great finale is kind of predictable, I'm sorry to say: who didn't see it coming that she'd give birth to a monster? Did anyone expect Donald Duck to plop out of there? In that sense, the ending is a lot like a typical corny 50s monster flick, except that the monster comes out of a punani rather than a mad scientist's lab. And Gabriel getting killed by the monster was also very predictable. What was surprising though is how positively Tilly reacted to Lyonne plopping a severed monster head out of her va-jey-jey.
Because Lyonne's severely toxic, drug-infested womb was ideal for impregnation with an alien being, does that mean that Lemmy from Motorhead would have been the ideal sperm-donor? Just speculating. I do like the movie's anti-drug "message" though - if we can call it that.
Best described as a slow-paced version of "Rosemary's Baby" and "X-Files" with a touch of "Jacob's Ladder". In fact, the movie's main flaw is that it moves at a snail's pace some of the time. Could and should have been 20 minutes shorter. The other, though lesser, problem is Natasha Lyonne who seems to play quite a few scenes for laughs. Perhaps the director wanted her to play it that way (which would mean he's quite confused and clueless), or what's more likely is that the screenwriter wasn't smart enough to realize that her usual "chummy BFF teen" shtick doesn't work within this frame-work - in which all the other actors say serious lines. Only she seems to play her role almost as if it's a semi-sitcom - and she's the most suffering character by far. How do you write goofy lines for one character but have everyone else behave seriously? Never liked her, to be honest. (Guess how she got into movies? Three-letter word.)
So who says there are no movies for women, huh? Almost all the main characters are female, and they're well fleshed-out and not stereotypical. Sure, Lyonne plays incredibly ditsy street trash, a mindless drug-addicted skank of the lowest order, but this isn't B-movie characterization whereby everyone fits into neatly defined, very boring, predictable boxes.
Which brings me to why this isn't nearly as suspenseful as it could have been. None of the characters are likable or even marginally moral, except Meg Tilly's, so why the hell would we give a hoot what happens to Lyonne? Her disregard for her potential baby and her own health are so extreme that I sort of figured that no matter what happens to her she had it coming. How do you identify or sympathize with someone that far gone in decadence and stupidity? Darwinism at work, if you ask me. I always struggled to feel sorry for hardcore junkies.
Now for the loony finale. "With your body we can create a new race that will allow us to supply an everlasting demand for submission" says the mysterious black guy. But what does that even mean? Please analyze this statement, filter it through this movie's logic and script, and then tell me in all honesty that it means anything. It just sounds like some random sci-fi/horror gobbledygook that's intended to cheat the viewer out of a real explanation by sounding cryptic and pulp-fictiony.
The great finale is kind of predictable, I'm sorry to say: who didn't see it coming that she'd give birth to a monster? Did anyone expect Donald Duck to plop out of there? In that sense, the ending is a lot like a typical corny 50s monster flick, except that the monster comes out of a punani rather than a mad scientist's lab. And Gabriel getting killed by the monster was also very predictable. What was surprising though is how positively Tilly reacted to Lyonne plopping a severed monster head out of her va-jey-jey.
Because Lyonne's severely toxic, drug-infested womb was ideal for impregnation with an alien being, does that mean that Lemmy from Motorhead would have been the ideal sperm-donor? Just speculating. I do like the movie's anti-drug "message" though - if we can call it that.