T-Blockers. 2023. Australia. Directed by Alice Maio Mackay. Screenplay by Maio Mackay, Benjamin Pahl Robinson. With Lauren Last, Lewi Dawson, Toshiro Glenn. DCP courtesy Dark Star Pictures. 74 min.
Alice Maio Mackay gives us the transgressive, queer, meta, political, and gooey horror film we need with her third feature film (made at just 19!). When dangerous parasites start taking over the bodies and minds of men, the queer community in a small Australian town must fight back…again. Centering on filmmakers Spencer and Sophie and their team of bigot-fighters, T-Blockers gets to the reality of our reality, in which the queer community is repeatedly threatened with new horrors by those in power. Part of that includes finding clues from the previous generation’s films that prove fighting bigotry is a never- ending battle. T-Blockers is low-budget fun, destined to be a cult classic and definitely a direct descendent to the DIY films of the 1990s.
Preceded by
Empire of Ache. 1996. USA. Directed by Lisa Hammer. Screenplay by Hammer, Dame Darcy. With Dame Darcy, Christian S. Anderson. 9 min.
Illustrator Dame Darcy (Meat Cake) stars as Clara One-Arm, an overwrought young woman who’s trapped in her room and tormented by a trio of puppets, a ghost from her past, and a crazed nurse brandishing a monstrous needle.