In the midst of dry ice, spotlights and close-ups, I love to see a moment of cheap DIY glam. Out of the sparkles appears Conann, with soulful tired eyes, grey-blonde hair with a slick of grease running through it, draped in the finest of garments, an emergency blanket.
It’s a 99p camp moment that literally saves you, warms you, soothes you and makes you glow. Something so affordable and life-saving that unfurls out of a drug baggy in a geometric tiled pattern. An airy ‘quilted’ blanket that glistens. God, I love emergency blankets. It’s a cheap wearable disco ball that prevents you from dying. It’s easy, bargain basement, eternal life vibes. But it’s also so gaybar disco ball, eyes-wide-open HD, and genius lighting design. I knew I loved these little lifesavers, but I really love to see them in a glamorous, big-ish budget film.
Soon after, we meet Rainer in a halloween costume mask. You could probably find a similar mask at any local costume shop, but here it is framed with a wig, and once again sparkles. And from within this scary halloween dog mask comes a sultry French accent…now that’s what I call camp.
I love that I could recreate these looks at home. I could be ‘on set’ just messing about with cheap fun finds from local shops. I could be there; it’s comforting, it’s attainable. It gives school play but with a full grown-up cast and way better lighting and acting. It’s polished camp. But not overly polished. If it was polished much more I wouldn’t like it. It sits in the right place on the scale from DIY to pro. I always want a bit of both and here I’ve got it.
The film also sits in a good place between gross and beautiful. Another place I always want to be in. It’s challenging at times, there are scenes of gore and blood. BUT, it’s not trying to fully immerse you in the reality of that violence, viewers are given space to dip in and out. You know it’s dress-up. There’s room to put your own context on it and be self-reflective, at least I think so.
I get the idea of grease, filth and dirty-water-wet in the set and costume design. But, I know some real nice sleek hair gel has gone into it, some fabulous loose powder, and some meticulously made handicrafts. Albeit, with some real human-made spit.
And then we have the sticky itchy SFX make up, which I personally hate the feeling of…ew. And, even though the make-up does not convince me that there is ‘real blood,’ I feel the realness of that gloopy fake blood and latex and scar-fluid on my face. It’s a really tactile icky instant response. And can you believe that people choose to put this stuff on their face for ‘fun’ or ‘art’? I am one those people. But the itchy sticky textures are paired with soft Super-8-ish haze and glittery water droplets. It adds to the horror, and the camp. It’s a lot, in the best way.
The set has this sense of huge vast space with lakes and clouds… I wanna be on set. I want to explore. It feels staged and planned and theatrical, but it does not feel contained. But, at the same time, the familiar references of the emergency blanket or party shop make it feel so nearby. It’s fantastical but feels ‘real’. I don’t mean real as in the story seems realistic, I mean that it feels so camp that it could be happening in my local gaybar… it’s quite Bonjour (RIP).
It’s camp enough that I don’t feel overwhelmed by the horror n gore; that feels especially important right now. I don’t want realism, I rarely want realism actually. I want a place to explore that is manageable, controllable and fits into a separate filing cabinet in my brain to the unorganised, ever-growing section of ‘real horrors’. When we witness Conann’s violent culling of everyone everywhere… I can hear the foley of someone stabbing a big bit of fruit or something else silly and squishy.
There’s a lot of moments where the third wall is broken and actors look directly into the camera. I like them, it’s fun. These are nice little reminders that this feeling I’m getting of being involved in the film was intentional. I already knew the third wall was broken, but these moments are a cheeky nod to it.
And towards the end when we get all the artists walking through into the film. It’s really real. We’re in it. It’s immersive in a similar way to a video game at times. It feels a bit ‘choose your own path’. Which character am I? Damn, and when all the artists are scrounging at the remains of a rotting corpse…honestly…if you know, you know.
Watching She Is Conann makes me want to make films again. I’m inspired by how a film can be so fun and so gay while also prompting self-reflection. I’d like to watch it again on the big screen, in the company of friends, with a big glass of wine.
Nat Lall
Weird Weekend present She Is Conann on Friday 31st May, 2024, part of our monthly screening series at OFFLINE, Glasgow. Tickets are available here.
Nat Lall is a Glasgow-based film curator, known for their work with the Scottish Queer International Film Festival. Nat is also a filmmaker and DJ. Notable films include Pink Excavation (2018) and their musical alias is DJ FLUFFIE.