Charlee Danielson and Anthony Sneed

(In French, On Cable TV, August 2021) There are times when I wonder if I’ve become too jaded and seen too many movies. (Especially after shrugging off a gory but dull horror film.) But then there’s something like Bad Biology to remind me that, no, I’m just jaded enough to sit through stuff like that. Because Bad Biology, from noted cult shlockmeister Frank Henenlotter, is clearly designed to upset viewers. Its first few minutes, after all, don’t just feature an abnormally libidinous young woman (with seven, ahem, pleasure centres) who has one-night stands violent enough to kill her partners, but has a biology so outlandish that every tryst is followed hours later by the birthing of a deformed fetus. All of it graphically portrayed. It’s not just that kind of film — it’s the kind of film where the protagonist directly turns to the camera and tells viewers to deal with it or stop watching. And there’s more to come, as the film then turns its attention to a tortured young man with a disembodied phallus who’s just as sex-obsessed as the female lead we just met. They don’t know each other yet, but clearly the intent of Bad Biology is to deliver a twisted love story of extreme characters. But it’s also a film in which the third act features a sentient, autonomous male organ smashing through walls in order to assault young women. Clearly birthed from the gore-comedy school of horror, Bad Biology is utterly tasteless, absolutely not to be seen by mainstream audiences and… actually rather entertaining in a what-will-they-think-of-next kind of way. Charlee Danielson and Anthony Sneed are frankly fearless in their portrayal of the lead couple, and that’s exactly the kind of go-for-broke tone that’s appropriate if the film is to work. Ironically, I may actually be too jaded by everything, because my main complaint about the film is that it could have gone further and covered up some of the second-third lulls with more outlandish material. But keep in mind that, even if I didn’t completely hate Bad Biology, I have no intention of every recommending the film… or seeing it a second time.