Ruptured Review: Thanatomorphose

Country of origin- France/USA
Year of release- 2012
Director-  Éric Falardeau
Stars- Kayden Rose, David Tousignant, Émile Beaudry

           

The word thanatomorphose translates in English as ‘the visible signs of an organism's decomposition caused by death’, with that in mind, lets begin.

The film opens with an extended sex scene, but don’t worry it is in no way pornographic, because this scene looks like we are viewing it through the predators mask while on acid. The whole scene is just a collider scope of loud noise, trippy colures and thrusting. After this the films first ‘chapter’ begins, and worryingly it is titled ‘despair’, which is an emotion I will have abundance of by the end of this film. Unfortunately the films main character has no name, so for the sake of this review, I will from here on in refer to her in the most appropriate way possible, by calling her ‘Dumb Fuck’. Very soon after this trippy sexual encounter Dumb Fuck begins to show the first signs of what ever horrific STD she has contracted from her earlier encounter. This for me is when the annoyance began, and continued. Her first symptoms are that a few clumps of her hair fall out, followed by the sudden loss of her fingernails in the shower. Now I don’t now about you, put if that happened to me, I would be in a doctor’s waiting room faster than Speedy Gonzales to a cheese orgy. But of course, Dumb Fuck decides rather than go to her doctor; she will just act as if nothing has happened, because that so logical!
 

 

As the film progresses the symptoms of Dumb Fucks disease become increasing worse, and she begins to spend her time wandering aimlessly around her apartment, while rotting like a week old corpse that’s been dumped in the middle of a rainforest. Even as her flesh begins to turn into a patchwork of bloody blackened oozing sores, she doesn’t even consider consulting a medical professional. All this while the most miserable, dull and depressing violin score plays, but don’t worry we don’t just get violins in this films soundtrack, we get random bursts of load noise coupled with epileptic visuals, for no apparent reason. The film continues on for what felt like a week, until it literally crawls to a halt, and falls apart.

 

There is one single good thing about this film, and that is the excellent practical effects of the highly talented Rémy Couture, and his team. They truly are something special, and are the only reason to suffer through this film. Both the acting and cinematography are nothing special, which is a shame as those two elements could have redeemed the film a little for me. This film tried to be Mermaid in a Manhole crossed with Nekromantik, and ended up feeling like a highly pretensions short student art film, that got stretched further than Cher’s face. The line between artistic and pretensions is a very vague and subjective one, but anybody who hasn’t been lobotomised can see this film has less artistic merit and less to say than King Kong VS Godzilla. I can not recommend this one unless you want to see plentiful amounts of putrefaction and goo, and even then the lighting is often so dim it’s hard to make out what’s actually going on. I give this one a 2.5/10, avoid it like an STD that makes you turn into a decaying corpse that mopes like a teenage goth at a family gathering.