Booger

As Anna (Grace Glowicki) comes to terms with her flatmate’s sudden death, a bite from her late friend’s cat, Booger, turns her life upside down. She starts chugging out balls of fur and starts licking her paws. Is Anna going through some furry changes?

Booger treads familiar body horror territory, but it’s eerie and funny enough to keep you hooked. It does sound like a B-movie where everyone is covered in green Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards-style slime by the end of it, but no, Booger is not a film about boogers. Instead, the title alludes to a cat who suddenly goes missing, and our protagonist starts losing her sanity over it. It isn’t even her cat, but the way her search for the missing feline drives her insane yields interesting results. The movie doesn’t waste time establishing its twisted sense of humor and slow-burning dread. Anna’s transition into a cat-human hybrid is interesting but reminiscent of other body horror classics like David Cronenberg’s still-terrifying remake of The Fly or even Franz Kafka’s tragic novella Metamorphosis. Mary Dauterman’s directing debut doesn’t break any new ground, but Grace Glowicki’s partly-funny, partly-scary transformation gives you enough to stick around till the credits.

The first half easily draws you in but Booger gets weak by the third act. With its sudden time jumps and bizarre premise, Booger promises to be campy fun at the start. But all the awkward jokes aside, Booger is far from camp. Instead, it also has intense moments where the film turns into a serious drama about a woman losing her grip on reality. While the Metamorphosis and a final plot twist offer food for thought, Booger still can’t stick a perfect cat-like landing towards its end. With much quasi-philosophical discourse over grief, loss, and change unfurling at once, Booger loses the freshness it starts with. But still, with a meager 78-minute runtime, debutant director Dauterman wraps up many interesting threads in a ball. The ball of wool could have been neater, but Booger still makes for an intriguing body-changing experience.