We’re two-thirds of he way through 2022 and it’s looking like this is going to be a breakout year for Argentinian horror movies. To date, Virus: 32, Welcome to Hell, and On the Third Day have represented the genre on behalf of Argentinian filmmakers. Now the latest horror movie from the South American country, PussyCake, is available on Screambox and other VOD platforms outside of the United States. There’s a bit of hype proceeding this story of a girls rock band stumbling on unspeakable horrors while on tour. Only a handful of reviews are currently floating around for this one.
Synopsis
A struggling girls rock band takes a detour through a small, abandoned town and find something worse than flagging ticket sales.
PussyCake a Bizarre, Nearly Incomprehensible Story Lacking Almost Any Logic
Don’t go into PussyCake expecting a coherent story. Stuff happens that can be loosely paraphrased into the following – girl rock back confront bile-spewing zombies in an abandoned town. But that’s not even entirely accurate. Somehow three different writers – Maxi Ferzzola, Hernan Moyano, and director Pablo Parés – cooked up a movie that maybe involves zombies. Or they could be multidimensional aliens. In fact, PussyCake opens with a teenage boy attempting to replicate his father’s failed experiment to find the missing scientist. Jotted notes say something alternate dimensions before things go expectedly awry. Parés then introduces the gooey creatures and the movie later at least lets us know that our band has arrived in the same town. And that’s the only connection the movie makes to its prologue.
PussyCake isn’t a ‘dog’s breakfast’ of a movie; it’s an acid trip on screen.
From that point onward, PussyCake becomes an increasingly gonzo horror movie lacking any sort of internal logic. Our ‘alien zombies’ spread by vomiting up white bile into their victims’ mouths. Except maybe it’s a big alien parasite that latches onto the back of your head? One victim seemingly grows big fish-looking eggs in her stomach that the ‘alien zombies’ sort of care about. Or at least they do in one scene. Some victims are buried alive in beach sand up to their necks like they’re being harvested. But other victims are just discarded on the same beach. By the time a hulking, masked ‘alien monster thing’ shows up wearing a cape you’ve either turned off the movie or you’re just shrugging your shoulders and accepting it. PussyCake isn’t a ‘dog’s breakfast’ of a movie; it’s an acid trip on screen.
PussyCake Compensates For a Bizarro Plot With Bizarro Gore
In terms of technical plot, PussyCake is incomprehensible. Yet it’s basic storytelling actually works quite well. At its core, the movie is about a group of young women bonded together by friendship and love who fight to stay alive. And PussyCake’s struggling band is comprised of likable characters, particularly its two leads. By the time the movie reaches its third act, you’ll be pulling for these two characters to make it out together alive. Arguably, Parés actually manages to craft quite a bit of tension in the climax, much of which stems from this relationship and your empathy for the characters.
If you’re sitting through this movie it’s for the gore and excess bodily fluids bursting out across the screen.
But no one is watching PussyCake for characters or nail-biting suspense. If you’re sitting through this movie it’s for the gore and excess bodily fluids bursting out across the screen. And PussyCake boasts plenty of carnage for gorehounds. This may be one of the more grotesque horror movies since last year’s Psycho Goreman. As compared to the Canadian horror-comedy, the Argentinian gorefest takes itself a little more seriously, which sounds strange given the wild story. There’s bits of Evil Dead and Troma-fueled insanity built into this one’s DNA. And the effects are actually quite good. While it rarely makes sense, PussyCake is never boring and it’s often wild fun.
PussyCake Rarely Makes Sense, But Remains Wildly Fun
Consider PussyCake to be a tale of two movies. On one hand, it’s an almost comically incomprehensible story lacking any sort of internal logic. At the same time, it’s a wildly fun, insane horror movie that recalls some of the better gorefests in recent memory. Amidst all the spraying bodily fluids, there’s also a surprisingly strong emotional core anchored by convincing performances from its two leads. Though it’s not for everyone, PussyCake should prove to be lots of fund for fans of horror gore.