by Sebastien Plante
For those who are unfamiliar with the work of the writer/director Bruce LaBruce, a basic description of his genre would be “gay political porn which metaphorically exams social issues by means of explicit scenes of gay male intercourse”, though even that is still a label far too general for his work. Common themes also include the relationship between sex and violence, and the rejection of queer stereotypes (or sometimes the rejection of rejection). In the case of Otto, LaBruce toned down the explicit sexual content in favour of characterization, themes, and politics.
The story centers around Otto (Jey Crisfar) – a living dead boy who finds himself walking along a stretch of highway, not knowing who he is or where he’s going. In the course of his wandering, he comes to meet Medea Yarn (Katharina Klewinghaus), an experimental film maker struggling to complete her gay political porno Up with Dead People, and who instantly takes to the young man, feeling that his open identity as a zombie is the inspiration needed to complete the filming. His occasional vague memories of his life among the living comes clearer after he finds a wallet in his back pocket which reveals even more of himself, including the phone number of Rudolf (Gio Black Peter) – his former boyfriend.
Skipping the final day of filming, Otto goes to meet Rudolf only to learn more about himself than he cared to process. Meanwhile, the final day of shooting culminates in the great zombie orgy – where disembowelment, gore and intestines are shown alongside sexual penetration (sometimes of newly torn openings). The movie ends with a question mark over Otto’s future – and also one over his past and his nature.
In terms of themes and politics, the message is never lost – though it is up for interpretation. Much like in LaBruce’s The Raspberry Reich, the politics are far from hidden as they are overtly expressed through one of the core characters – Medea, in this case – who speaks on behalf of LaBruce and carefully walks you halfway through the main arguments, leaving the rest of the film to fill in any blanks. However, much like his films in general, Medea is a double-sided character; on the one hand she spouts politics with such melodrama and pretension that she comes across as a campy satire of the politically radical and the self-important tone they habitually adopt.
On the other hand, Medea makes sense, and the arguments are surprisingly easy to follow considering their nature. The overall tone of all LaBruce’s movies tend towards being both a homage and a satirical mockery of radical political movements, as well as a plot-intensive porno – though much less so, in the case of Otto.
The movie overall blends traditional and experimental film techniques in many ways. The soundtrack alternates between noisy, Eraserhead-style moody soundscaping, and folky tunes – especially using Bear Hides and Buffalo by CocoRosie (as heard in the trailer but not, oddly enough, in the official soundtrack) to set the spooky, haunting tone of Otto’s identity as a zombie, and alternating it with zing-a-zingy upbeat folky tunes during flashbacks to Otto’s life as a living boy. He also alternates traditional visual story-telling techniques, filming, and framing with a more gritty arthouse, somewhat film noire approach to story telling – depending on the mood of the scene.
On the negative; the film lagged at times with establishing shot after establishing shot, and the acting is stiff, blank, and often unconvincing. This style is by design, apparently, and is not unlike earlier John Waters movies – which has its own strange appeal. There is also far more left to interpretation than most would be comfortable with, and the ultimate meaning would most likely be beyond those not familiar with radical queer politics. Still, LaBruce has definitely pulled together an excellent film, albeit one that I wouldn’t suggest to most. However, if the idea of an arthouse radical queer/socio-political gory zombie movie with explicit scenes of gay sex appeals to you, hopefully you’ll be lucky enough to track down a (legal) copy in Canada some day.