Jasper (Rowan Polonski) and Harriet (Abigail Hardingham) are two artists who have turned to making custom erotic videos to cover the cost of living. This has put a strain on their relationship and specifically made intimacy a chore. However, things manage to get worse when a new client hires them to perform weird rituals on tape. What seems like easy money starts to take a toll on both of them, and they find themselves digging deeper into something much more sinister than they bargained for. This is where Custom becomes a surreal body horror nightmare with aspirations to reach the heights of a David Cronenberg film. While Custom is hard to describe, polarizing, and explores gender and sexuality, it is a very different kind of beast than what the King of Venereal Horror has been providing us for decades.
The economy is on fire, leaving many of us turning to side hustles to pay for food, shelter, and the general cost of living. This leads to lots of us monetizing our passions until they feel like work. So, Jasper and Harriet turning their sex life into a stream of income expectedly leads to some friction for this couple. Writer-director Tiago Teixeira minds that aspect well, and their relationship dynamics take center stage for a moment. We get that this is a job for them, and they no longer put each other first as they strive to satisfy their customers in the name of the almighty dollar. We learn that Harriet is more successful than Jasper, and she is also openly seeing other people. The audience gets a front-row seat to their doomed relationship, and it feels more personal than any of the sex acts they are paid to perform.
By the time Custom introduces the client who wants them to make odd VHS tapes, you have almost forgotten the movie is a thriller. So, it is a welcome reprieve from the lives of this couple when the rules and specifications are shared. This is especially spicy because we know Jasper is the type of character who will break the most important rule – to never watch the tapes they make for this deal. To be fair, most of us would also want to see what was on those tapes if we and our partner had no memory of what transpired. When Jasper begins to watch the weird VHS tapes, we see how dark these rituals are. In one of Custom’s strongest moments, he replays a tape for Harriet. She becomes upset and confirms that she would have never consented to the horrible things they have done.
One thing I have to give Custom credit for is immaculate vibes. We have a lot of interesting pictures underscored by some magnificent lighting choices. Philipp Morozov’s cinematography really stands out when watching this story unfold. While the film is not as sexy as it thinks it is, it understands how to deliver a sexy aesthetic. Sam Mason’s sound design specifically did some heavy lifting regarding stressing the audience out after the movie lost many of us. I also appreciated that an intimacy coordinator, Eden Barrell-Kane, was hired because it is a pivotal role for a film like this.
The bulk of my issues with Custom is the script trying so hard to be confusing and different that it works as more of an experimental piece than a movie to be consumed by audiences. Instead of picking one of the many lanes it swerves into, it tries to speed down all of them at the same time. The result is a crash into an ending that leaves you trying to remember where it all started and where it went wrong.
Custom could have easily tackled the post-Only Fans world or delved deeper into how more people are turning to sex work because the world is a dumpster fire and it is too expensive to live. It could have delved deeper into Jasper’s feelings of emasculation resulting from Harriet’s success and her obvious dissatisfaction with their relationship. Or it could have taken the simple route and just tackled kink culture. However, it touches on all these subjects but refuses to let them breathe long enough to mean anything. Custom also never connects these ideas together long enough to let them build off each other. This results in an underwhelming experience for the spectators, who will leave this movie confused and turned off. A cardinal sin for a film billed as an erotic thriller.
Custom had its North American Premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 19th, 2024.
