After the death of her best friend Izzy, Anna focuses all her attention on Booger, the stray cat which she and Izzy took in. When Booger bites her, she begins to undergo a strange transformation.
Let me just say thank you to Ms. Flamingo and Mary Dauterman for putting “Booger” on my radar (yes, really, that’s the name). We already got a movie coming out about a woman turning into a dog to cope with parenthood so why not try the cat-tastrophe route? On Halloween no less?
Sometimes it’s easier to tell whenever one director is having fun going through an experimental phase than others; Mary Dauterman is one such example if only because her ambition only just matches the quality of the end result. It’s a very stark, expressionist lens bolstered by an unadulterated lack of shame and twisted energy that doesn’t hit every note but gets enough of it.
Predictably claustrophobic and fish-eyed, Pili Weeber’s production design is an impressive undertaking of making familiar surroundings look intangible or out of reach. Working within and around the confines of the low budget and despite a sturdy, compact closed in caged aura to mimic constantly walking on eggshells however, it can’t escape being the only sane factor out of everything else here….in comparison to the other technical elements. Cinematography and editing are just as bold and brash as the directing, refusing to shy away from either really itchy closeups or disorienting angles with a frantic rhythm; feels purposefully loony to match the eroding mental state and does more to build upon the films foundation than the production design.
Presentation wise, there’s always a substantial sense of uneasiness lingering about between the surefooted pacing preventing its sequence of events from moving too fast, the tight, unsettling tonal clarity being given just enough wiggle room to buckle down and roll with it despite its tension whittling, and a hoarse visual language constantly focusing on warm, hard lighting to illustrate hostility. And yes, it only just makes up for how the runtime is ridiculously shorter than usual.
Musical score and sound design are probably the MVP’s here; one’s very discordant and minimalist whenever useful while the other’s animated propulsion might as have left my ears crying; a nice balance between the two.
For a genre that’s become known for overdoing its bigger emotions and under-highlighting the smaller ones, the performances here highlight the best of both worlds. Very few dialogue exchanges stand out and the characters really come to life in brief spurts but Grace Glowicki is the lone exception, both in her radiating acting range and executing the absurd boundaries of her character.
Let’s put my bias for cats to the side for a second and address how this story plays out: as repetitive as certain sequences can get and the predictability of the loss/trauma body horror premise shines brighter than the Eye of Sauron, very small but gradual progression was crucial in how picking apart exactly how despondency, desperation and apathy seeps out of us in times we can’t understand. Every scene carries some measure of importance while avoiding blatantly padding stuff out for the sake of it. Now to be fair, it’s not the first time a film takes an outlandish premise to explore something deeply human but the film earns extra points for not trying to have us learn about grief, especially when it’s so absurd in how it presents that sensitive topic.
Lecturing isn’t the lesson here. It’s the feeling.
Grief and loss are intrinsically linked for a reason as confronting that troubling memory or in the face is enough to either shut someone down or completely rewire an entire personality and I could kind of understand why the cat route was taken. The Feline Five are the core personality factors that normally take up dominance, impulsiveness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism in felines to varying degrees; traits that more often than not cross over with us humans depending on how we cope. Here, just enough is wrung out of this premise to mix well with the horror genres penchant for controlled chaos without simplifying, restricting, or mudding it down with convoluted overtones. It’s a daunting yet relatable metaphor, Anna physically embodying the one thing her deceased friend loved and so many unchecked emotions leading to more transformations.
That being said, while the films central message is healthy and should be second nature to anybody experiencing some kind of loss, it’s literally the only thing of value the film actually has to say, regurgitating it over and over until the hairballs shrink in size. And you can feel that pressure waiting in the longer the film progresses; actual narrative beats don’t give off the impression of carrying much forward momentum and while the resolution is sweet, Anna’s stock characterization kinda muddles that happy ending.
Yes, her feeling closed off is meant to be the entire point but not much about her seemed to stand out before her transformation.
Anybody can make a movie on how grief can wreck someone inside out but not many can manipulate every factor around them to truly highlight the messiness of that debilitating process. It doesn’t get any deeper than that but on twisted energy and stark execution alone, Booger marks its territory as an uncomfortably comfortable watch.
