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Presenting: ‘The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans’ Golden Ghoulie Awards

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Welcome, prized plebeians and titular Titans, to the inaugural Golden Ghoulie Awards™! The first season of The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula: Titans has come to a close and featured nine episodes of lewks, kooks, and truths to scrutinize and glamorize. Equal parts The Real HouseUglies of Hades, a lighthearted hang with old friends, and a deadly battle for drag supremacy – Titans juggled more tonal shifts than the Shudder home page. In honor of yet another phantasmagoric buffet of the senses led by the nightmarish Boulet Brothers, Horror Press thought it’d be horrific to hand out nonexistent awards – courtesy of us – to the Monsters and moments that made this season special. Join us in your Samhain best as we make one final descent into the Underworld. As an unfriendly reminder, if any altercations relating to love triangles break out during the show, all parties will be escorted from the premises and cast back into oblivion.

Best Individual Looks:

Granny hag from hell. Gorgeous ladies with big naturals. Wigless. A lewd homage to the Disney Channel. No, I’m not reading from a discarded flyer for the Boulet Brother’s 2022 Halloween Ball. These are descriptors of just some of the legendary artistry our Titans brought to the main stage this season. Famed artist H.R. Giger once said, “My paintings seem to make the strongest impression on people who are, well, who are crazy,” and our eyeballs were absolutely batshit for the visual splendor that made up the Titans floor shows. We’d be remiss to defibrillate the Golden Ghoulies without first acknowledging all the hard work put in by every single Titan to cross the threshold. So, in order of disappearance, these are the Best Individual Looks each Titan served this season.

Yovska: Pumpkinhead (Halloween House Party) – We didn’t get to see much from our favorite plushy hellion this season, but Yovska came out swinging in this sultry Nightmare Before the Strip Club number. Criticized in their original season for not allowing the personality of Yovska to shine through the cuddly terror of their costumes, this time, Pumpkinhead served body and face. Remain on guard because they’ll distract you with their pumpkaboobs before they sink their teeth in you.

Runner Up: Teletubby Toilet Bowl (Premiere episode entrance) – The Golden Ghoulies wouldn’t be complete without mentioning this meme-worthy moment. Whatever Yovska’s intention, Kendra – through her almighty shade – made sure we will forevermore associate Yovska with that cursed children’s show and the porcelain throne.

Kendra Onixxx: Frankenstein (Halloween House Party) – Grace Jones made an appearance at the party via Kendra’s 1980s-inspired Frankenstein costume. Despite coming across as low-key compared to the competition, the reference is unmistakable, and the vibes are right. She also remained faithful to the 80s spirit with not one but ten (10) coke nails!

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Runner Up: Grandmother Bitch (Science Fiction [Horror] Double Feature) – Confoundingly unhinged, this campy moment gave Club Libby Lu realness. Hold on to your wigs because there will be more on this infamous lewk later in the show.

Erika Klash: Space Hydra (Science Fiction [Horror] Double Feature) – Lay back, and feast as this kaiju guides you through new and exciting dimensions. Erika broke free of her cutesy couture chains and propelled into the stratosphere with this DayGlo Ghidorah experience. Moving on from gel pens to prosthetics and puppetry, Erika entered Titan territory. Artpop, indeed.

Runner Up: The Bat (Halloween House Party) – Spoopy when it counts, Erika’s flittermouse had hair and carnal gore in all the right places. If it were not for her pairing with a literal question mark, perhaps the look would have gotten its due.

Abhora: Angel Eater (Science Fiction [Horror] Double Feature) – Abhora may rarely understand the assignment (and that’s why we love them), but this haute couture original proved that sometimes we need to get on their level. When you can’t figure out if it’s a dove-eating Final Fantasy boss or something from a Paris runway, it’s both, and it’s automatically iconic – we don’t make the rules. Abhora could Ozzy Osbourne, but Ozzy could never Abhora.

Runner Up: Spiral Witch (Revenge of the Witch) – It’s their woods, and we’re just following a trail of candy in it. Much like Miss Grandmother Bitch, stay tuned for more on this one.

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Melissa Befierce: The Fabulous Predator (Science Fiction [Horror] Double Feature) – If you’ve ever wanted to see the Predator in The Fifth Element serving See You Next Tuesday, Melissa worked it out, baby. Her custom bodysuit was meticulously stoned for tha’ gawds, and her lipstick was on point(ed teeth), all while remaining ultra-deadly. To borrow directly from her name, the lady was fierce as fuck.

Runner Up: GLOW Diva (The Ugly Ladies of Wrestling Rematch!) – This 1980s butch-femme fantasy is something only Melissa Befierce could pull off. A true glamazon in a ring of Uglies. Watch out, Sigourney!

Astrud Aurelia: The Kraken (Seamonsters of the Depths) – An ultimate mashup of their animal-infused drag and the show’s high expectations, Astrud’s Kraken had Davy Jones’ locker room on its knees. It was a titanic glow-up from their would-be Season 4 “Ghostship Glamour” challenge look (seen via Instagram) and highlighted their uncanny ability to mix fantasy creatures with reality.

Runner Up: Primordial Ooze (Science Fiction [Horror] Double Feature) – All eyes were on Astrud with this lewk, and that’s how they like it. Resembling something you wouldn’t want to find under your bed or in a dirty kitchen, they landed a laser-sighted bullseye on the challenge.

Evah Destruction: Sea Witch (Seamonsters of the Depths) – Evah’s hairy-armed Ursula blew all the fish out of the water. The curtain of her bioluminescent shell pulled back to reveal a sinister beat, and Evah utilized her thespian skills to sell the high drama. It was, perhaps, this Titan’s finest moment of the franchise. Is there still time for her to film a role in the upcoming live-action The Little Mermaid?

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Runner Up: The Devil (Halloween House Party) – Before Evah’s Sea Witch, there was Evah’s Devil. Yet another personal best, guest judge Cassandra Peterson told no lies when she proclaimed this should be Evah’s signature look.

HoSo Terra Toma: Sadako (Horror Icons Reanimated) – Leave it to HoSo to gift wrap Sadako from Ringu in celluloid and make it fashion. Everything about this look worked, from the analog TV helm to the slimy and tangled hair to the performance itself. They made this character fresh and – most importantly – drag while remaining distinct from the rest of their body of work.

Runner Up: Prom Queen (Zombie Prom) – If one of the countless Resident Evil iterations filmed a prom scene, this creature would be there. Plus, seeing HoSo in “basic bitch” drag was priceless.

Koco Caine: Elf Barbarian (Dungeons and Drag Queens Two: Into the Underdark) – Koco had her fair share of large (and busty) props this season, but none rocked the set more than her Elf Barbarian and axe. In true Koco fashion, the look and performance fused femme fatale with comedic timing, and the detailing ensured her character would be every gay boy’s first pick for the D&D campaign. Gimli is quaking.

Runner Up: Black Widow (Grand Finale) – This terrifying creature was perhaps the best embodiment of filth, horror, and glamour during the final floor show of the season. Nightmare fuel that makes you horny? Classic Koco.

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Victoria Elizabeth Black: Pumpkinhead II (Halloween House Party) – She saved the best for…first? While Victoria’s prosthetic work is out of this Underworld, her first lewk of the season utilized her skillset while leaning more toward traditional drag than “Universal Studios.” From the top of her removable scalp to the bottom of her pumpkin-gore skirt, it was ooey-gooey perfection. It became immediately apparent that VEB was back, and the granny hag from hell mouth prosthetic came with her.

Runner Up: Prom Queen (Zombie Prom) – It was a treat to see a softer side of Victoria pre-zombie bite, and the aftermath was expectedly repulsive. Truly the best of both worlds.

Top 3 Floor Shows:

Drag as an art form is constantly in a cycle of reinvention. It has been around far longer than we realize and will continue to evolve far beyond our wildest imaginations. The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula acknowledges and nurtures this concept, providing alternative drag artists a platform where there once was none. And while we eat up the backstage drama and wait with bated breath for the infamous Exterminations, the otherworldly floor shows keep us coming back for more. Old school and new-age drag form a symbiotic bond on the main stage, mixing ballroom with experimental, glamour with gore. Titans resurrected some old favorites and gave us new surprises. These are the Top 3 Floor Shows of the season.

  1. Zombie Prom: Most symbolic of the fusion of old and new, this floor show allowed us to see a different side of our Titans before tearing their bodies asunder as flesh-eating undead. And while we may never want to see Abhora presenting as a female cheerleader again, some were genuinely breathtaking. Then, when the shit hit the fan and their minds went feral, the show’s editors did a fantastic job splicing together the transition and letting carnage and chaos reign.
  2. Revenge of the Witch: A curse of baldness, a little bit of Project Runway, and a campy lip sync – this floor show had it all! It’s always a treat to see individual takes on the classic iconography of the witch, and this time our whimsical wenches had to design a pair of magical pumps to wear while lip-syncing the bog down boots. Thematically, we saw a few witches exact some sweet revenge, and homosexually, we witnessed the gayest floor show of the franchise. Werk!
  3.  Horror Icons Reimagined: Another take on a prior season’s challenge; this one is oddly personal. As horror lovers, we all have our favorites, and here we can see who or what might inspire the Titans and their work. This go-around, they were tasked with recreating a signature moment from their chosen icon, and the results were killer. A special shout-out goes to Koco Caine for going full-meta and performing as the third Boulet Brother.

Top 3 Fright Feats:

“On Titans, we’re all Erika” – HoSo Terra Toma

Fear: It lurks beneath the surface. We feel it when we catch a shadowy figure in our periphery. We experience it when we forget our charger at home. We see it in the eyes of the woman selling discount paella at the local dive bar. It drives our decisions and alters the course of our lives. Unfortunately, it didn’t create any lasting effects on this season of Titans, in which everyone had to participate in the weekly Fright Feat before continuing the competition. But, in the end, the fear of expulsion forced them to embrace their inner Extermination Queen, Erika Klash, and eat pig brains. In the spirit of fear, here are the Top 3 Fright Feats of the season.

  1. Burn the Witch: Literally and figuratively the spiciest of all, this Feat saw the tempestuous Titans set their mouths ablaze by eating some of the hottest foods on the planet. The most sincere test of wits and physical endurance was undoubtedly the most challenging and appropriately came with higher stakes. The winner (Erika, duh) was able to cast The Curse of Baldness upon a fellow competitor (Abhora, duh) to suffer during the upcoming floor show.
  2. Lie Detector Test: This was a shady ol’ time – pure fun. We got some answers to hard-hitting questions and plenty of spilled tea. Does Victoria think they’re better than everyone else? Does Astrud believe they have what it takes to win? Are Koco’s titties full of secrets? Talk about juicy.
  3. Bobbing for Apples (in blood): While none too challenging or revealing, this throwback to the quintessential party game threw our players into the deep end from the jump. Wigs were slicked back in viscous plasma, and the ghouls were literally gagging. The Boulets surely got their money’s worth watching this puke fest.

 Most Gag-Worthy Moment: “Shoes” Lip Sync

Setting aside the season’s towering amounts of interpersonal drama, the Boulets set out to have fun this season. Their banter was sillier, the Titans made tinfoil hats and played “Stabula” in the boudoir, and an entire episode’s B-plot dedicated itself to the quest for fun. So, when the super-secret lip sync song for the Revenge of the Witch floor show revealed itself to be “Shoes” by Kelly, a collective gay gasp could be heard worldwide. We’re used to the occasional lip sync to a Boulet Brothers song, but something so explicitly camp seemed almost out of reach on the show. Watching these Titans, who are now horror icons in their own right, prance around the stage to such a ridiculous song was pure magic. Thank you for such a stupid surprise, Gagula.

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Most Heartwarming Moment: Melissa and Abhora Make Amends

In a season full of strong personalities and love triangles, the clash of the Titans often happened off-stage more than on. And while we love a good drama, it tended to drone on longer than Merrie Cherry on Season 4. At one point, it seemed as if Melissa and Abhora were going to come to blows due to the former’s intolerance of petty drama and the latter’s self-destructive behavior. In actuality, an angel must have been shining down on Hell that day because while on location for the D&D challenge, the pair set aside their differences and hugged it out. Our stone-cold hearts grew three sizes that day.

Most Robbed: Abhora as the Spiral Witch

Abhora had a very tumultuous season, but one of their moments in the spotlight was during the Revenge of the Witch floor show. They shocked the cast by returning from oblivion, expertly rolled with the Curse of Baldness cast upon them by Erika, and turned out one of their best floor shows of the season. Sure, Abhora can’t quite figure out how to walk in a heel, but they swirled and twirled around that stage like it was New York City and definitely understood the assignment. They should have at least been at the top if they could not secure the win. Instead, they were safe and left to their inner saboteur backstage. Robbed!

Most Iconic Inanimate Object: The Quill

I know what you’re thinking: What about Koco’s axe, HoSo’s bubble gun, and Abhora’s creepy baby doll mug? The Golden Ghoulie goes to Episode 1’s quill, which the Titans used to write down the names of who they thought should be up for elimination, Survivor style. Much like a toxic hookup, it came, caused chaos, and left without a word. It also gave us one of the season’s funniest moments in which Koco could not use the quill to save her life due to her iconically long nails. We need a Koco Caine and Jennifer Coolidge buddy comedy, stat!

Best Wig: Victoria Elizabeth Black’s Zombie Prom Intestines Wig

Intestines transformed into a wig. It looks as intricate as it does disgusting. Need we say more?

Worst Wig: Yovska’s Revenge of the Witch Wig

While we are here to celebrate our Titans, there needs to be at least one straight-up shady category. Yovska doesn’t typically wear the standard drag wig – or any at all – so they must know this was a sin. It looked like a possessed merkin, unless, maybe, that’s what they were going for?

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Biggest WTF Moment: Grandmother Bitch

If you thought “Abhora as ???” was confusing, you hadn’t seen anything until Kendra appeared on stage in Episode 3. Dressed like Judy Jetson as a high-end call girl, she used a Nintendo Switch controller as a prop phone to scream expletives at/about Grandmother Bitch in a surreal spoken word performance. It culminated in her pooping out an alien egg and eating it. After some internet sleuthing, it has come to our attention she was paying homage to the 1999 Disney Channel original movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century. If this helps you make more sense of it, we are glad to have helped. In any case, we couldn’t take our eyes off her, and we hope she made it to the Protozoa concert with egg-free hotpants.

Biggest Upset: Melissa Tops While HoSo & Evah Bottom

 Melissa had been playing as an underdog throughout the season, but Episode 6’s wrestling challenge provided the perfect opportunity for the fiercest butch queen of the franchise to snatch a win. In contrast, frontrunners HoSo and Evah couldn’t match her masculine energy and soon faced the Staircase of Souls. Tension was thick, and it seemed the Boulets didn’t bring a knife because both remained safe by the episode’s end. One upset creates another, and everyone was left to wonder what consequences this double save might hold for the future. The drama of it all!

The Golden Breastplate Award of Honor: Koco Caine

The Golden Breastplate Award™ honors the Titan who displays a god-like mastery of shade and the spoken tongue. Koco Caine shone like a beacon of light in the darkness, illuminating a path for all to see. She was the season’s narrator, telling like it was, is, and will be. She lay her shade like delicately placed proximity mines, popping off when you should have known better. The only dragging of Koco Caine was done by Koco Caine herself because if you can’t read yourself, how in the hell are you gonna read somebody else? She left the season unscathed, emerging as the show’s sweetheart with a heart – and a breastplate – of gold.

That’s our show, Uglies. Thank you for being a part of the inaugural Golden Ghoulie Awards, and we hope you enjoyed reminiscing on the crowning achievements of our beloved Titans. If you wish to wash away some of that pesky fire and brimstone, we’ll be dumping buckets of blood on people in the parking lot after the show since it went unused for the finale. Rest in pieces!

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Alex Warrick is a film lover and gaymer living the Los Angeles fantasy by way of an East Coast attitude. Interested in all things curious and silly, he was fearless until a fateful viewing of Poltergeist at a young age changed everything. That encounter nurtured a morbid fascination with all things horror that continues today. When not engrossed in a movie, show or game he can usually be found on a rollercoaster, at a drag show, or texting his friends about smurfs.

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‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’: And the Impact of Slasher Sequel Trends

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Legacy sequels are not a new invention in the horror genre. The 2020s have seen several horror legacy sequels keeping the same name as their predecessors and retconning the canon to revitalize the franchise for a new generation of movie-goers. We have seen this with the Halloween, Scream, Candyman, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchises. All of which kept the movie title of the original installment (minus the 2022 TCM movie, which dropped “The” and made “chainsaw” one word again) and removed nearly all installments after the first from the canon (minus Scream 2022, which is a continuation of Scream 4). 

Slasher fanatics are getting a new legacy sequel with the fourth installment of I Know What You Did Last Summer (IKWYDLS) hitting theaters this July. So far, we know that there will be legacy cast members returning, and it is expected to be a direct sequel to I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, according to Variety. Based on its horror franchise cohorts, here are my predictions for the new IKWYDLS movie. 

Spoilers ahead for Halloween (2018), Candyman (2021), Scream (2022), and Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022).

Legacy Cast Turned Harbingers

Legacy cast members are not being hunted down yet again, but they now offer knowledge and a warning to the new class of fresh meat. The previous survivors and final girls now evolve to a different horror movie trope: the harbingers. 

We see this in a few movies. Laurie Strode warns her family in Halloween 2018. Dewey accurately predicts the killer to be Amber and Richie in Scream 2022. Anne-Marie discourages her son, Anthony, from uttering the word “Candyman” and reveals that the hooked-handed legend is the real danger in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman (2021). 

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The first trailer for the new IKWYDLS shows Ray urging officials in a town hall to take the events seriously. In the second trailer, Julie shares her final girl advice not to be a passive victim and identify possible motives to narrow down who the new deadly fisherman is. I am looking forward to seeing a seasoned Freddie Prinze Jr and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise their roles and hopefully be engaging harbingers.  

Previous Final Girl Becomes The Real Danger

In their role as a harbinger, the legacy final girl is back for blood. This is extensively shown in Halloween 2018 as Laurie Strode is now a firearms specialist and has designed her home to be a trap for Michael Myers. The sequence of her hunting for Michael in her house in the third act is unforgettable and bad ass. Sidney Prescott (and Gale Weathers) spoil Ghostface’s plan in Scream 2022 simply by showing up to the murder party.

Yes, Ghostface did want Sidney there, but they were very unprepared for how tactical she would be and not take the bait on tricks that a new slasher survivor would. Sidney was fine with shooting first and asking questions later!

Sally Hardesty (played by Owlen Fouere) makes her first return to the TCM franchise in the Netflix 2022 Texas Chainsaw Massacre legacy sequel. She has been trying to track down Leatherface and his family for decades, and finally gets her chance for revenge. An interesting take on what she has been up to for the past nearly 50 years. 

Julie and Ray could be the power couple that the new survivors need. After all, they did evade and clumsily defeat Ben Willis in the 1997 movie. They made up for the clumsy execution with a more impressive effort in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer by Ray traveling to an island to fist fight the father-son duo while Julie unloaded a revolver into Ben Willis.

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Both demonstrating they have learned from their first encounter with a murder and not taking second chances. I do not expect them to play the wait-and-see approach in the new movie. 

The Legacy Death

What keeps horror hounds coming back to slasher franchises are the kills. Fans of slasher flicks want to see their beloved Michael Myers or Leatherface hack away at the youths who break horror movie rules. However, the shock and surprise come from meaningful deaths, and this does lead to fan favorites getting the axe (or chainsaw). 

Dewey loses his plot armor in Scream 2022 as Ghostface recognizes, in a meta way, the importance of his death by saying “It’s an honor” as his corpse hits the floor. Sally finally finds her prey, only to receive a chainsaw in the abdomen and to be yeeted into a pile of garbage (I’m still salty about this). In Candyman, while he may not be considered part of the “legacy cast”, Anthony McCoy is still an important returning character. He meets his demise after William Burke saws off his hand, and the Chicago police later slay Anthony in a poignant scene. These deaths make the audience feel the gravity of the situation and fear what is now possible for the new cast. 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer left us with three possible legacy characters returning: Julie, Ray, and Karla (played by Brandy). Trailers have not revealed a Brandy cameo, but it is not out of the question for her to return as the sacrificial legacy death. I personally believe there is a bigger chance for Ray to meet his end, similar to Dewey. While all filmmakers hope for audiences to fall in love with their new characters, any financial success will likely warrant a sequel that will need to feature Jennifer Love Hewitt to keep the slasher fans excited. Fingers crossed that Julie makes it out of her third run-in with the vengeful fisherman. 

I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters July 18, and I’ll eagerly be seated to see what trends this new addition has to offer to the slasher legacy sequel canon. 

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Finding Unexpected Empowerment in “Poor Things”

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Poor Things

A young person, raised by a scientist and seemingly simple minded by design, discovers their inner hedonist. In their quest for pleasure, they leave their home and embark on misadventures involving sex, sugar, an abusive relationship, and various enlightenments, all before returning home to confront their past so that they may move towards their future. This is the streamlined arc for both Poor Things protagonist Bella Baxter and myself. When I saw Poor Things in theaters in January 2024, the only things I knew about the film were that Yorgos Lanthimos directed it and that the cast included Emma Stone, Ramy Youssef, and Willem Dafoe.

You can imagine my surprise when I not only felt the impact of Bella’s arc, but also felt seen and even empowered in a way that I rarely do as a queer disabled man.

Discovering Bella Baxter in Poor Things

Bella, an adult woman who exhibits childlike behavior, is under the care of scientist Godwin Baxter, who has taken on the role of her father figure. Conversations with his student Max reveals that Bella’s body is the resurrected corpse of a woman that Godwin discovered, while her brain had originally belonged to the child the woman had been pregnant with. It’s important to note that Godwin didn’t know the circumstances of the woman’s death before he pulled off this macabre miracle. More on that later.

Bella eventually has her first sexual experience through masturbation, is instantly hooked on the gratification she feels, and tries to achieve constant satisfaction proclaiming “Bella discover happy when she want.”. Those around her, such as Max and Godwin’s maid Prim, are less than elated about Bella’s newfound desires, but Bella shamelessly persists. Godwin, in response, decides to try to arrange a marriage between Bella and Max, with the condition that the pair live with him for the rest of his days. While Max agrees, Bella ultimately decides to leave their home in London to embark on a whirlwind affair with Godwin’s lawyer, Duncan Wedderburn. Duncan, enticed by the contradicting nature of Bella’s innocence and sexual hedonism, pursues and woos her with promises of worldliness and sex.

Subverting Disability Stereotypes

One of the most common stereotypes in media around disabled people is the belief that their disabilities render them either asexual or unable to obtain any type of sexual gratification at all. When one reads Bella as disabled-coded, as I do, she becomes one of the strongest subversions of the “disabled equals asexual” trope seen in recent, mainstream film history. A disabled-coded reading also makes Bella’s hypersexuality much less problematic than it would be if the character was only analyzed at a surface level. The juxtaposition of disability and hypersexuality is an aspect of Bella’s character that I greatly identify with.

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In early childhood, I was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and as an adult, I also tend to chase this type of gratification for the sake of leisurely pleasure or even as a way to cope with stress. With Duncan, Bella travels first to Lisbon, Portugal, where the two spend their time together having sex and eating exotic foods and sweets. Bella’s constant craving for more pleasure proves to be too much for Duncan, who grows to resent her as he is unable to keep up.

His resentment is compounded by Bella’s social ineptitude, as she repeatedly embarrasses him with several faux pas during a dinner party at their hotel. For example, after taking an extra moment to understand her female dinner mate’s sex joke, Bella makes a comment about the taste of Duncan’s penis. When Duncan reprimands her and restricts her to a few choice phrases, she describes the death of her dining companion’s relative as “delightful”; she later interrupts the dinner banter because she wants to “punch [a] baby” that’s annoying her.

Poor Things Bella Baxter Emma Stone

Bella’s Misadventures with Duncan Wedderburn

Bella’s unfiltered comments and inappropriate responses are painfully reminiscent of my own past social failings, from remarks about my former partner’s genitals, to intrusive questions about the suicide of a classmate’s uncle, and finally to vocalized violent inclinations towards small, annoying children. Thankfully, like Bella, I was stopped before any harm could come to the younglings.

Despite their growing tensions, Bella and Duncan stay together, even as Bella goes on to binge alcohol and have sexual encounters with other men. Duncan eventually lures her out of Lisbon with a cruise to Athens, Greece. Bella is quite displeased with this change until she befriends two fellow patrons, Martha and Harry, who open her eyes to pursuits beyond her hedonism, and introduce her to philosophy and literature, irking Duncan.

Bella’s Intellectual and Emotional Growth in Poor Things

Bella embraces the intellectual stimulation presented to her, leading to a debate with Harry over humanity’s potential for cruelty in which Bella argues that humankind is not inherently cruel. Harry retaliates when the cruise docks by showing her the conditions that poor people must endure. Bella gives her and Duncan’s money to members of the ship’s crew with the (ultimately ignored) instruction to distribute it to the poor. The rash decision results in Bella and Duncan being left to fend for themselves in Paris. Bella, to Duncan’s outrage, finds work in a local brothel, a job that she views as merely a means to an end. She ends their relationship and gives him money to return to London. Bella continues life as a sex worker, taking on many lovers in the process, including a fellow sex worker named Antoinette. 

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The trajectory of Bella and Duncan’s relationship evokes a situationship I had years ago with an older man that would prove to be formative. Like Duncan, he presented himself as a mature man of many sexual interests that he would help me dip my toes into. And, like Duncan, he seemed to be attracted to me only when I was entirely compliant with his whims, and had an issue with me having friends and connections outside of him. I, like Bella, also managed to have a much larger libido than the supposedly adventurous gentleman, which amplified the tension as I was always wanting more.  Finally, after ending this affair, I, like Bella, learned an important lesson or two and threw myself into my personal development and goals.

Returning Home and Facing the Past

Bella’s story eventually sees her return to London. She learns the truth about her origins and reconciles with Godwin, whose health is failing. She also meets Felicity—a “new Bella” that Godwin and Max created. This is a subplot that deeply resonates with me, specifically Godwin and Max’s treatment of Felicity in comparison to their treatment of Bella. Godwin doted on Bella and Max fell for her, whereas the pair grew frustrated with Felicity and essentially abandoned her to be cared for solely by Prim. It’s easy to view Bella and Felicity as higher and lower-functioning disabled people, with Bella as the preferable one because she can mask her symptoms better than Felicity can.

Several times, I have been in Bella’s position of being a preferable disabled person to interact with compared to others because of my higher functioning and less obvious presentation. I’ve even experienced this dynamic in my childhood with my sister having ADD and ADHD, which was deemed more draining for our parents compared to my own diagnosis. It’s been a journey to overcome the internalized ableism that these experiences created, but it’s one that I’m glad I’ve embarked on. Among other things, it makes Bella rightfully directing the disdain she has for Felicity towards Godwin and Max so much more satisfying, even if she does offer both men forgiveness. 

Uncovering Bella’s Tragic Origins

In London, Bella learns that her body, pre-reanimation, had belonged to a sadistic woman named Victoria Blessington, who, along with her husband Alfie, abused their servants. Alfie informs Bella that Victoria died by suicide, likely due to her hatred of her unborn child, which she referred to as “the monster.” Alfie plots to imprison Bella and subject her to female genital mutilation. Bella ultimately escapes and takes Alfie back to Godwin’s home, where she performs her own surgery—one in which she replaces Alfie’s brain with a goat’s.

Although Godwin dies shortly after Bella’s return, Bella remains ever the optimist and becomes a scientist, following in Godwin’s footsteps. She builds a life with her chosen family, including Max and Antoinette as her partners, Felicity as her surrogate sister, and Prim and Alfie as her servant and pet, respectively. The film’s ending is not the traditional “Good For Her (™)” conclusion we tend to see, but rather a “Good For Bella” ending that empowers her, as a person, uniquely.

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Bella Baxter’s Queer and Polyamorous Awakening

The conclusion of Poor Things brings home my feelings of kinship with Bella in two ways. The first being her completed arc from the cruel and hateful Victoria to the joyful and sincere Bella. When I was younger, I was definitely more Victoria than Bella; my younger self was a bully who enjoyed using my sharp tongue to bring others down as hard as I could. It was a lot of work to become a better person, one that I struggle to maintain from time to time. Like Bella, I have found kindness to be more rewarding than cruelty and wish to believe in the inherent joy in humanity.

The other way this conclusion resonates with me is through our—Bella’s and my own— late queer awakenings. For over half of the film, we have no indication that Bella is queer besides the likely unintentional hint of Bella rejecting Godwin and Max’s heteronormative ideals of marriage. We don’t see anything concrete until the montage of her sexual escapades in Paris, concluding with her and Antoinette having sex. It awakens Bella’s queerness in her adulthood to the point where she ends up in a throuple with Antoinette and Max, revealing that Bella is both queer and polyamorous. Similarly, I did not have my queer awakening until I was twenty, and I had my awakening as polyamorous only last year. Bella is a fictional character, but it is comforting to know that it is possible for others to have those awakenings occur later in life.

Embracing My Disabled and Queer Identity

When I look back at Poor Things, I see it as a messy and polarizing film by design. The questions of whether we should be offended, intrigued, or feel something else entirely regarding the plot of a woman being reanimated with her baby’s brain in place of her own and eventually embarking on a quest of hedonism are valid ones that do warrant discourse. I don’t resent those who are outraged by the film and detest the film’s critical success.

However, I can’t find myself outraged, especially when the film’s protagonist’s experiences mirror my own, with Bella becoming a comfort character to me as a result. In the time since my initial viewing of Poor Things, I have found so much more pride in being disabled and queer that I keep surprising myself. I used to be embarrassed to discuss my disability in any detail, because I feared that I would be treated differently or viewed as merely trying to excuse my own faults with my neurodivergence.

On the contrary, those who care about me now understand me better, and I have a film that I can point to for them to have a glimpse into my lived experience. I’ve even become more proud of my queerness to the point of going to my first Pride celebration last summer, as well as having an awakening in regards to my polyamory. I cannot begrudge a film like Poor Things for its messiness when it has empowered me so much in the way that it ultimately empowers its protagonist. 

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