Thanatomorphose

Thanatomorphose: (French noun, feminine) "Visible signs of an organism’s decomposition caused by death."

A recent article in Gorezone Magazine alerted me to a darkly intriguing new film about to enter pre-production: French-Canadian filmmaker Éric Falardeau’s independently produced dark tale of sex and gore, Thanatomorphose.

Thanatomorphose, as explained above, is a French word meaning ‘the visible signs of a organism’s decomposition caused by death.’ This positively Cronenbergian sounding film follows the tragic and rather moist tale of the young and beautiful Laura, who wakes up one day and finds her flesh rotting, in a strange and claustrophobic tale of sexuality, horror and body fluids…

Falardeau was inspired by a famous quote from film director Jean Cocteau: “You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.” Apparently, the film’s emphasis is not on the why, but the how: how will Laura react to what is happening to her? Falardeau has said that the film investigates the notion of ‘the body as an object, a commodity - how we treat our body and disconnect ourselves from it in the process.’

Last year a promo-teaser was shot to promote the idea and help Falardeau find investors. It has already been shown in various festivals around the world and is amassing a quiet buzz online. The film has the potential to be a real throwback to classic Cronenberg, with a dash of Polanski’s Repulsion thrown in for good measure and marks Falardeau as a fresh, fiercely original new name on the horror scene. One to keep an eye out for, I’d say. The idea of someone having to come to terms with the premature decomposition of their own body, as they are essentially trapped within it, is the stuff of nightmares…

Keep up to date with Éric Falardeau and the progress of Thanatomorphose on Twitter and Facebook...