What do you get if you mix John Waters with feminine coming-of-age body horror? The answer is writer/director Brooke H. Cellars' wonderfully campy and queer The Cramps: A Period Horror Piece. The film is an absolute blast from start to finish. Cellars' feature debut marks a brave new voice, and it's one heck of a horror comedy.
Cramps: A Period Piece, as the name suggests, feels like it's not of this time and place. The costume and set designs, coupled with the choice to shoot on 35 mm, gives the film a late 1960s or early 1970s aesthetic, like Pink Flamingos. The film is super stylish, while containing lots of laughs and plenty of gross-out moments, too. There are even scenes where the film reaches back further in time with set designs that resemble a Victorian tea party.
The feature stars the lonely and isolated Agnes Applewhite (Lauren Kitchen). Her only friend is a mannequin that she dresses up and frequently speaks to. Agnes suffers at the hands of her overbearing mother (Brooklyn Woods), who acts like a soap opera villain. Meanwhile, Agnes' only sister, Liberty (Harlie Madison), also berates Agnes. The curly-haired protagonist just can't catch a break, that is until she decides to work in a local beauty salon and finds her tribe.
Agnes' place of employment is filled with crossdressers and catty gossipers. Of Agnes' co-workers, the bearded Laverne Lancaster, played by Martini Bear, is the true standout and one of the film's major high points. A drag and burlesque artist, Martini Bear really hogs the spotlight, and for good reason. They know how to command a stage and the camera. They're funny, snappy, and a true diva. At times, you feel like you're watching one of their performances because the acting is so outlandish.
Other than the family tension Agnes confronts at home, there's another conflict. The beauty salon faces a threat from a rival salon, run by the vapid Tangerina (Sylvia Grace Crim) and Vinyl (Vincent Stalba). The salons compete in a local show where they have to unveil a hairdo, big enough to wow the audience and judges. If Agnes and her salon loose, they have to close up shop and move elsewhere. So there's a lot at stake that ramps up to quite the explosive climax.
Regarding the body horror, Agnes' period cramps turn monstrous, to the point they kill people. Yes, it's absurd, like much of the film, but it's also rooted in the filmmaker's own struggles with endometriosis, a disorder in which tissue similar to the tissue that lines the uterus grows outside the uterus in places where it doesn't belong. It can cause immense pain and reproductive problems. In this case, at least, Cellars used her own experience to craft a clever horror comedy that also shines a spotlight on reproductive health. She also created an underdog in Agnes who finds her voice at the salon, surrounded by proud and beautiful woman, a room full of divas.
The Cramps: A Period Piece is an absolute wild romp. Yet, while the movie contains plenty of ridiculous fun mixed with coming-of-age horror, it also draws from Cellars' own experience to talk about women's health. This is also very much a movie about finding your tribe and learning to accept yourself. It's a positive message that needs to be told, especially right now.