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The Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta
The Miracle of Life or: The Thingy
Belgium 2013
produced by Zeebraman Productions
directed by Joël Rabijns, Yves Sondermeier
starring Pascal Maetens, Karel Vingerhoets, Celine Verbeeck, Jérémie Petrus, Andreas Perschewski, Sofie Hoflack, Koen Blauwblomme, Korneel Cornelis, Gert Jochems, Chris Bale, Renato Brabants, Miro Brooks, Wim A. Christiaens, Eline Danasovsky, Ben De Raes, Stephanie Demeyere, Danny Deprez, Rob Eeckhout, Liesbeth Eeckman, Luc Eeckman, Michael Fromowicz, Isabelle Nouwen, Jobst Schnibbe, Elien Van Den Broeck, Edward Van Den Bulck
story by Shana Lazou, screenplay by Joël Rabijns, Yves Sondermeier, music by Higgens Dig Habekotte, Yuri Lewitt, Adrian Omen, visual effects by Père Obhscure, Lendert Pauwels
review by Mike Haberfelner
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After Marianne (Pascal Maetans), a bodybuilder who concentrates on one
arm only, has given birth, she decides to ditch the baby and keep the
placenta she affectionately calls Luke - and thanks to the upbringing of
his mom and the local priest, Luke grows up to be quite a normal human
being ... apart from the fact of course that he's a placenta, and looks
it, too. High school is difficult for him, just like for all kids who
are different, as he's the prime target of bullies, and he of course falls
in love with the most popular girl in class (Sofie Hoflack) ... but their
one date goes horribly wrong when she tries to eat him - as she thinks
that's the proper thing to do with placentas. Luke is just shattered, but
to raise his spirits, mom orders him a whore - which really helps, until
Luke overhears the prostitute asking for extra money because Luke's just a
monster. Eventually, mom, who has been taken all kinds of steroids all
her life, overdoes it and loses her good arm, and is no longer able to
compete of course, which forces Luke into a dead end job - and it isn't
long from there until he breaks ... There's one thing The
Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta is for certain ... and
that's weird - kind of obvious of course, as it's not that often that we
get a movie focusing on the life of a living placenta, but there's more
than just that, as the movie, despite rather basic effects work and quite
a few gross-out scenes, is beyond being just crude, it actually shows
sympathy for its lead placenta and puts him through the paces rather than
just making him the center of jokes. And while the film's main influence
is quite probably Basket Case,
cineastes might also find quite some parallels to Rainer Werner
Fassbinder's Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?, interestingly. So
basically, this film is less spectacle and more beyond spectacle - which
is quite a feat and results in a very unusual movie! If this
has gotten you at all excited, you might want to check out this movie at Troma
Now: https://troma.vhx.tv/videos/blood-orgy-at-beaver-lake
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