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Twin brothers, Patrick and Carol (yes, Carol is the boy’s name), decide to care for the reanimated corpse of their friend Wendy Hearst, after she was missing for months and then presumed dead. Patrick, who had a huge crush on her when she was alive, invests the most interest in Wendy during the summer; he can’t bring himself to terms with the fact that Wendy’s spirit is gone even though he plays dress-up with her decaying body in hopes of bringing her back.
-Christen Cromwell
So is the film about lost love and its compulsive effects or just a visually compelling –and certainly daunting– rendition of a young male’s obsession with a high-school crush now gone eerie with her zombie-like reappearance? It’s hard to tell. Twin brother Patrick takes meticulous care of Wendy’s corpse at their friend Rody’s house (parents have zoomed off for vacation) only to discover by the end of the summer that he really didn’t know her and she him, via the use of flashbacks to reveal the past. Patrick’s physical attraction to Wendy is evident –beautifully crafted with the use of sunset and moonlit drenched light to soften the girl’s peeling skin as he slowly bathes and fixes her up like a porcelain doll– but his reasons for loving her and his emotional reactions to her resuscitated state are left undetermined. There’s hardly a moment in the entire film when music doesn’t sound in the background. It determines his state of mind. The viewer is left with scattered puzzle pieces of gorgeous cinematography and scarce dialogue (and not even monologue), unable to understand the origins of such dedicated unrequited love. But perhaps that’s the point. It’s a romantic almost magical horror film, with unexpected juxtapositions that are all visually well handled, intended to represent young love but don’t expect any attempt to explain or analyze.
-Mónica López-González
Audio Interview with co-director and co-writer of Make-Out with Violence, Andy Duensing
[startaudio]andy.mp3[endaudio]
Make-out with Violence
The Deagol Brothers, Director
U.S.A., 2009, 105 min
Presented at Maryland Film Festival May 8-9, 2009
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