Shudder Saturday: Touch Me (2025)

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone that you know isn't necessarily great, but they help you to forget the rest of the world for a while? They feel like they're healing you from past traumas, they know just what to say and do, most of the time, and you can at least lose yourself in some throes of ecstasy during the good sex.

That's what Touch Me is all about. It's a psychodrama that also has some moments of horror and plenty of dark comedy running through it. The second film from writer-director Addison Heimann, after the interesting misfire of Hypochondria, this is a huge step up for him, and signifies the strong possibility of a bright future ahead.

Olivia Taylor Dudley is Joey, a lost young woman who finds herself drawn back to her ex, Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci). Joey's bestie, Craig (Jordan Gavaris), accompanies her, but he ends up also attracted to Brian. Brian is hard to resist, despite the fact that he's actually a multi-tentacled alien with some plan that is supposedly meant to save his home planet. Everyone knows this, including a line-in helper (Laura, played by Marlene Forte), but what are a few tentacles and dubious plans when you can feel so good for a short while every day?

Moving smoothly between light and dark, Touch Me works as an obvious analogy for more standard relationships without feeling too clumsy and obvious. It's helped by the alien tentacle content, which does a good job of distracting viewers while the central messaging remains clear and concise throughout. It's also helped by a great score, from Jimmy LaValle (who has worked numerous times with the brilliant Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, two of the producers here), and a fantastic core cast.

Dudley is excellent in the lead, one of those people who can be good enough to keep you on their side, despite the selfishness and difficult behaviour. Gavaris also does well, playing his part as equal parts supportive friend and jealous competitor as Brian takes, and maintains, a mesmerising hold over our two main humans. Pucci is given the toughest role, having to be charming, confident, persuasive, and sexually-alluring throughout. The fact that he somehow manages to be all of those things, despite the outfits that he's made to wear, is testament to his hard work. It's also great to watch him be so calm throughout most of the runtime, making the moments that have him worked up all the more effective, and I found myself believing that people could easily fall under his spell. Forte has the least of the four main roles, but she does very well with what she's given, and Ashley Lauren Nedd is a lot of fun in the couple of scenes that have her portraying Dr. Kelly, a psychiatrist certainly not about to take the tales of a wild past told to her by Dudley's character at face value.

Heimann has already received a lot of praise from those who saw this at a number of festivals, but that praise shouldn't stop now that it's more widely available. Those who know the themes being explored, and have an idea of how some familiar elements are being used to make everything feel a bit stranger and . . . out there than it otherwise would be, should be satisfied. Maybe not as satisfied as some of the main characters feel, but the satisfaction of the viewing experience comes with a lot less tentacles, trauma, or problematic untruths to be overlooked. 

8/10

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Shudder Saturday: Spring (2014)

Life and love, sometimes it feels like you can't have one without the other, and both are arguably only most appreciated when you have an idea of what their loss really means. If you went through life without any idea of death coming along for you one day then how would you do things? And if you loved every time with the intensity of your first true love then it's hard to say whether that would improve your life, or make it a lot worse. It all depends on whether or not that feeling is reciprocated.

Spring was the second feature film to be co-directed by the winning combination of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, and it shows them to be consistently mature and thoughtful creators, utilising horror movie ideas in a way that places them in situations viewers can easily identify with.

Lou Taylor Pucci is Evan, a young American man who finds himself in a bit of a spiral after the death of his mother. Thankfully, he meets a beautiful young woman, Louise (Nadia Hilker), while in Italy. But there's something different about Louise. Something she wants to keep hidden away from Evan, and something that could define the short-term nature of their relationship. Is the potential for their love worth what either of these two people could end up having to give up?

In a similar way to their previous feature, Resolution, Spring is an imperfect film in a way that makes it all the more endearing and enjoyable. It has gone up in my estimation since I first watched it a few years ago, and may rise further after future rewatches.

Although Pucci isn't the best person I could envision in the role of Evan, he does give off a nice mix of vulnerability and the sense of searching for a lifeline. He's lost, floating off a cliff edge, even during the moments in which he thinks he has everything in place and settled. Hilker is better in her role, but it's one that allows her to chop and change her personality as viewers sense something making her subject to something outwith her control. But beyond their individual performances, Pucci and Hilker do work very well together, and that is arguably the most important thing.

While Benson and Moorhead explore love, what it takes to be with the one you feel such a strong connection to, they also take the space and time to thoughtfully look at processing grief, being at a stage in your life when you're liable to make one mistake that can lead to another, and another, and another, and also how people can set on a certain path acting like a tourist and gradually become something better as they take in their surroundings more and start to appreciate them.

The kind of rich and rewarding horror film not designed to appeal to those just looking for a bodycount or load of gore (not that those films are automatically less worthy under the wonderful, pitch-black, umbrella of the genre), Spring is best described as an impressively insightful drama that just happens to have some monstrous moments. As well as some well-placed humour that feels in keeping with the central characters.

I bought this disc.

The Informers (2008)

Directed by Gregor Jordan and based on the work of Bret Easton Ellis (who helped to write the screenplay with Nicholas Jarecki), The Informers is far below other adaptations of the writer’s works (American Psycho, The Rules Of Attraction, Less Than Zero) but it’s not a terrible film.

There are a number of story strands running throughout the movie (some more entertaining and successful than others) all covering a variety of sins. There’s a debauched rock star, an unfaithful husband, a bad father, some carefree youths who keep themselves busy with sex and drugs and some other unsavoury characters. The details end up being rather inconsequential though the viewer can savour every little moment onscreen while events are unfolding, this movie feels more like a mood piece capturing a snapshot of 80s excess and exuberance on the cusp of being ruined by the encroaching harsh realities (the long-term effects of drug use, AIDS, etc). It’s very much along the same lines as The Rules Of Attraction with those involve neatly sidestepping to focus on the parents instead of the children, without audiences even noticing.

There’s a great cast. Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger and Winona Ryder all hold their own in the best story strand but there’s able support from Mickey Rourke, Brad Renfro, Amber Heard (who spends an impressive amount of her time onscreen in a state of undress and, yes, yes I am shallow enough to have enjoyed the movie more because of this fact), Lou Taylor Pucci, Austin Nichols and Jon Foster.

There’s also a pretty good soundtrack accompanying the sleek visuals.

The film only really lets itself down in terms of structure and cohesion, but that’s a big failing. Ellis himself has expressed displeasure with the way the thing turned out but I think artists close to their own work can sometimes be their own harshest critics so I’ll have to repeat that The Informers is not a terrible film. It’s no modern classic, and perhaps someone else in the director’s chair could have made something better of the material, but it’s enjoyable enough and features some fine actors giving fine performances. And a hint of vampirism. And Amber Heard. Mostly naked. 
 
6/10

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