Malacostraca
2018 · 16m · USA
Directed by Charles Pieper
Genres: horror
A writer's grip on reality deteriorates as his wife's pregnancy progresses — body horror and creature puppets by Gabe Bartalos.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Failing writer, pregnant wife, practical creature puppets by the Frankenhooker guy — that's an aesthetic commitment I respect. Cronenberg's Brood DNA at fifteen minutes earns curiosity.
Gabe Bartalos's practical creature puppets in a Cronenberg-Brood-lineage pregnancy body-horror, with SOTW endorsement and Filmquest awards, is exactly the genre craft I respect — physical effects in service of a psychological premise. A real piece of underground horror authorship.
Practical creature puppets by Gabe Bartalos (Frank Henenlotter's go-to effects guy from Basket Case 2 and Frankenhooker) is the craft signal here — 15:36 of body-horror with Cinematography by Ava Benjamin Shorr and Best Makeup Effects at Filmquest. That's lineage horror.
Festivals
- Filmquest 2018, Best Makeup Effects