It seems only appropriate that my first review for this year’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is a Brooklyn-based indie like Mary Dauterman’s BOOGER. It’s a quirky, fairly low-key little movie that almost feels more like a slice-of-life drama than traditional body horror, but it succeeds at being a more light and optimistic exploration of grief for the genre.

Anna is going through a lot. After her roommate and best friend Izzy died, she has fallen behind on paying rent and other bills. She has been missing critical meetings at work. She’s also stuck with Izzy’s beloved pet cat, Booger. One day, Booger bites Anna’s hand and promptly escapes by scurrying out the window. Anna obsesses over finding the cat, desperate to bring it back home. Meanwhile, the bite is causing her to experience some peculiar side effects.

Grace Glowicki (Strawberry Mansion) brings Anna to life as a young woman experiencing the many stages of grief. She’s not just angry at Izzy for dying but also angry at everyone else for trying to tell her how to feel. She’s hostile towards her boyfriend (Garrick Bernard), who is simply trying to help her cope with the loss of a dear friend. She’s avoiding her boss and putting off many other responsibilities. It’s a considered performance that helps to ground the more zany moments in reality.

As she maneuvers through everyday life, the bite on her hand causes her to undergo a bizarre transformation. These symptoms include sensitive hearing, sleeping on the floor, and the urge to eat cat food. She is also experiencing a series of recurring nightmares involving her in a room full of hairballs, but they also give us a better sense of who Izzy is through video clips she took of her and her friends. These sequences are well-constructed, and I also like the propulsive score for the film, which lends a sense of energy and stakes to an otherwise microscopic scale.

Some of the more horror-coded moments had me questioning Anna’s decision-making, with one example being that she never thinks to visit a doctor after being bitten, merely applying a bandage to the wound. Perhaps this is tied into the underlying theme of keeping your emotions tucked away from others, but it still struck me as odd.

But in delivering its message of the effects of grief and how it can shape us, BOOGER is generally consistent. A slight sense of humor throughout is a welcome change of pace for the type of story it’s telling, and the hopeful note it ends on seems refreshing. Those expecting Cronenbergian body horror will not find that here, but BOOGER instead strays into its own unique territory.

BOOGER had its U.S. premiere at Brooklyn Horror Film Fest on October 14th, 2023.

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Tom Milligan

Owner at Critical Milligan

Tom Milligan graduated from Pace University with a degree in Film and Screen Studies. He has written for a handful of entertainment websites, including ComicsVerse, and runs his own blog titled “Critical Milligan.” He loves foreign language films, video games, and Carly Rae Jepsen.

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