Rating: 4/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2024 | 44/52 | Joe Bob Briggs
It’s 1958, and 10-year-old Michael is having a hard time. His family just moved to a new state. He’s awkward, has a demented sense of humor, and has terrible nightmares. While his mom is loving and supportive, his dad isn’t helping with his odd pep talks about darkness and adulthood. When Michael jumps into bed at night, he imagines the sheets sinking into an endless pool of blood.
Michael meets fellow newbie Shiela at his new school, who claims to be from the moon. Things are looking up until he catches his parents engaging in a bizarre ritual where their clothes are off, and their mouths are all over each other’s bodies. Additionally, they’ve been eating leftovers every day since they moved, and Michael isn’t sure where the meat comes from.
Bob Balaban brings a Lynchian lens to childhood, where the membrane between nightmare and reality is thin, and everything is weird and terrifying. You don’t know how the world is supposed to be. And when you ask hard questions, parents and adults aren’t interested in giving you straight answers.
The filmmaking beautifully serves this surrealism. The cinematography does so much storytelling and tone-setting, giving even the most mundane moments an aura of menace. Angelo Badalamenti’s score is raspy and dark, with more texture than music, adding to the discomfort of each moment.
Randy Quaid is so good as the father. His eyes hold a steely coldness. His slow movement feels like a killer stalking his prey.
This movie might make me a vegetarian. I mean, probably not, but at least for the rest of the night.
Bob Balaban tried something critics didn’t appreciate in its time, but thankfully, more people are coming around to this disturbing coming-of-age horror show.