Brooke H. Cellars’ “The Cramps: A Period Piece” is a gloriously weird, proudly feminist slice of underground cinema that plays like a fever dream inside a vintage thrift store. It’s kitschy, grotesque, often hilarious, and, most of all, completely unlike anything else.
Shot on 35mm with an eye for a hyper-saturated, Technicolor aesthetic, the film immediately immerses you in a surreal, retro world where every wig is shellacked, every lipstick perfectly overdrawn, and every scream just a bit too perfectly timed. The film oozes with macabre beauty and a John Waters-style filthy irreverence that swirl together in a film that’s equal parts coming-of-age horror and absurdist comedy.
Agnes Applewhite (Lauren Kitchen) is young woman caught between a sanctimonious mother, a buttoned-up sister, and the chaos of a beauty salon where she lands a job as a shampoo girl. Just as she begins to find her identity in this glamorous new world, a painful force awakens in the form of menstrual cramps so intense they manifest as literal monsters. What follows is a genre-bending descent into bodily horror, drag camp, and feminist rage.
The special effects makeup is gleefully low-budget and delightfully grotesque, adding a real charm to the chaos. It’s a loving homage to DIY horror, where practical effects are worn like a badge of honor. The purposefully stiff acting is funny, with an overall theatricality that gives the film the feel of a vintage public access play that somehow stumbled into a horror dimension.
Unfortunately, the central gimmick wears thin after about thirty minutes. The film’s commitment to style over a traditional narrative means it occasionally drags. Think of it as more of an experience than a story, a narrative that cares less about where it’s going and more about the sheer spectacle of it all.
There’s still a lot to love and appreciate about just how bold and bizarre this thing is, especially since the idea is based on Cellar’s own experience with endometriosis. There’s real rage beneath the camp, and real catharsis in watching a woman’s pain take monstrous form.
Defiantly indie and cult to its core, “The Cramps: A Period Piece” is a throwback horror comedy that becomes a glorious mess of empowerment, camp, blood, and glitter.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 