USA, 2023)

While I’d been meaning to watch Poor Things for a while, it wasn’t on my list for this month as I wasn’t really sure it qualified as horror. However, I’ve reached the point in the month where I really needed something different to keep my interest, and I decided that a film with mad scientists, brain transplants, and surgical chimeras was close enough for my purposes. Genres are pretty notional things anyway, and there’s nothing wrong with bending them every now and then.

Poor Things is currently streaming on Disney+ in the UK.

Synopsis

In a fantastical version of Victorian London, Bella has been brought back to life by mad scientist Godwin Baxter (“God” to his creations) after throwing herself off a bridge. Bella was pregnant, but God has replaced her brain with that of her unborn child, rendering her a blank canvas. This reborn Bella learns quickly, but her combination of an adult body and the unfiltered mind of a child leads to awkwardness and confusion, especially once she discovers sex.

God arranges for Bella to marry Max McCandles, the medical student who has been documenting her development, but Bella decides at the last minute to run away with Duncan Wedderburn, God’s rake of a lawyer. The two set off travelling through Europe and the Middle East together, but Wedderburn is unable to keep up with the ever-changing Bella as she learns about philosophy, the world, and her own desires.

Everything is thrown into further confusion when someone from Bella’s past life recognises her, a life Bella herself has no connection to. How will this impact her efforts to become her own person?

General Thoughts

Yorgos Lanthimos likes making difficult films, and Poor Things is no exception. I had never read Alasdair Gray’s original novel, so Bella’s sexual awakening took me by surprise. While her arc is one of self-discovery and empowerment, I found it difficult to get past the idea that this is still a child’s brain in an adult body. I’m sure there have been thousands of words of think pieces written about whether Bella is truly a child, given the rapid development of her intellect throughout the film, but it still made me very uncomfortable. And I suppose this was the point.

Sexuality is a huge part of Poor Things, and Bella is generally the instigator, but seeing her go so quickly from being awkward toddler in an adult body to a creature of huge carnal appetites made me feel grubby. I know that discomfort is deliberate, but I would have been happier if it had been handled differently.

Given how many Hollywood actors come from the UK, I will never understand why filmmakers keep casting American actors to play British roles. While most of the cast acquit themselves just fine here, Mark Ruffalo’s accent borders on a hate crime. This is Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula levels of bad. Happily, his performance is otherwise solid, but part of me still died every time he opened his mouth.

Verdict

There is a lot I admired about Poor Things. The storytelling is terrific, largely unencumbered by exposition, and it never flags. It’s hard to fault the spectacle of the whole thing, from the dreamlike landscapes to the strange geometries of God’s surgically reconstructed face. And it’s simply refreshing to see a film with this kind of pedigree and budget that is allowed to be so aggressively weird.

Ultimately, I think the only thing that got in the way of my enjoyment was my perception of Bella as a sexualised child. This didn’t quite ruin the film for me, as it never quite feels exploitative, but it was still a kind of discomfort I do not enjoy.

Even with this caveat, I would still say that Poor Things deserves the success and accolades it has garnered. It may be an unorthodox pick for the October Horror Movie Challenge, but I certainly found it a good palate cleanser.

The October Horror Movie Challenge

Please do join in and share your own thoughts with us about this or any other films as the month goes on. You can usually find us on Twitter, BlueSky, Reddit, Discord, or lurking in the dark corners of your home.

If you would like to play along at home, my provisional selections are:

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (USA, 2021)
Tales That Witness Madness (UK, 1973)
When Evil Lurks (Argentina, 2023)
Under Paris (France, 2024)
In a Violent Nature (Canada, 2024)
Torso (Italy, 1973)
Titane (France, 2021)
Rorschach (USA, 2015)
The Coffee Table (Spain, 2024)
Dr Caligari (USA, 1989)
Bit (USA, 2020)
The Guard From Underground (Japan, 1992)
Oddity (Ireland, 2024)
Speak No Evil (Denmark/Netherlands, 2022)
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (USA, 1982)
Grave Torture (Indonesia, 2024)
Bedlam (USA, 1946)
The Innsmouth School For Girls (USA, 2023)
Daddy’s Head (UK, 2024)
All You Need Is Death (Ireland, 2024)
Eight Eyes (USA/Serbia, 2021)
Poor Things (Ireland/UK/USA, 2023)
Seven Deaths in the Cat’s Eye (Italy, 1973)
Longlegs (USA, 2024)
Night of Fear (Australia, 1973)
Stopmotion (UK, 2024)
Terrifier (USA, 2016)
Azrael (USA, 2024)
Faust (Germany, 1926)
Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (Hong Kong, 1991)
I Saw the TV Glow (USA, 2024)

A Final Note

If you have been enticed here by these posts, please do look around at some of our other film reviews. We also have a podcast, called The Good Friends of Jackson Elias, which occasionally covers horror films. If this appeals, you might want to check out some of the following episodes.