- Director: Becca Kozak
- Writer: Becca Kozak
- Stars: Chloë MacLeod, Drew Forster, Michela Ross, Charles Lysne
REVIEW
In Candy’s (McLeod) world, it’s punk music, her boyfriend, illicit affairs and working at the ice cream store. That all changes one afternoon when the creepy ice cream delivery driver, drops off a delivery and before he leaves assaults and rapes Candy. From that moment on Candy begins to change for the worse, she sees some strange marks on her body and begins having some intense sugar cravings. To top that off, Candy starts oozing a rainbow ice cream like substance and everyone in the town now wants a taste.
This low-budget exploitation film, playing at the Fantasia International Film Festival, is from Canadian filmmaker Becca Kozak and is her first feature film, and it is not a nice watch which is the point. Despite the crazy, surreal and chaotic nature of the film, Kozak effortlessly gives us a gooey, disgusting horror film and at the same time hits the target on women’s rights, bodily autonomy, women being fetishised, judged, used and abused.
McLeod does a fantastic job here. She imbues Candy with a super hard edge whilst just being a touch vulnerable, at least as vulnerable as the film will let her be. It’s a great performance. Ross, as Barbie, gets it right with her portrayal of the perfect woman (through the prism of men, of course). Forster as Candy’s idiot boyfriend Sid is the perfect amount of dumb whilst Dr Herschell Gordon, (yes, I got cheap laugh out of that one) is played with such a snivelling, mediocre man vibes that it’s a credit to Lysne, that you hate him from the first moment he is on the screen.
There are very few boundaries that aren’t crossed by Kozak in this film (coat hanger abortions, sexual assault, self-cannibalism to name just a few) and that’s the way film should be. A lot of body horror films work because they take a crazy situation and relate it back to what is happening in society. Sugar Rot does this very well and even in the last minutes after the craziness dies down, it offers up some bleak commentary on where the world is currently. Maybe it’s time we listen.
A low budget, punk powered, go f*ck yourself, feminist, satire, body horror that puts women’s rights, squarely in front of your face. Sugar Rot is damn good.
Played at Fantasia International Film Festival
Ryan Morrissey-Smith
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