[Fantastic Fest 2025]: The Cramps: A Period Piece

A white young woman with curly reddish brown hair lies in bed on the phone, her black fluffy cat is stretched out next to her — Lauren Kitchen as Agnes Applewhite

Having had its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest, Brooke H. Cellars’ The Cramps: A Period Piece is a kitsch and campy look at the horrors that menstruating can cause to a person’s life.

Agnes Applewhite (played by Lauren Kitchen) is newly employed at a local hair salon despite the disdain of her old fashioned beige mother and her uptight sister. Everything seems to be going well for Agnes as she begins to blossom with a new found confidence until her period begins to affect her in an increasingly bizarre manner. With no help from medical professionals, Agnes continues to endure the nightmare that is her glittery, sentient period, which ironically enough, is out for blood.

a white drag queen with bouffant blonde hair, a beard and red lips is wearing a gold chain and a yellow blouse is looking off to the left of the picture. Behind her stands three women. One is of Latina descent with dark hair and wearing a houndstooth dress. The white woman in the middle has reddish brown curly hair and is wearing a white sleeveless top with grey checked pants. The third woman is white and has big baby pink hair and is wearing a blue top with a patterned white skirt and gloves. — Martini Bear, Michelle Malentina, Lauren Kitchen and Wicken Taylor as Laverne, Holiday, Agnes and Teddy

Boldly wearing its John Waters influences on its glamorously bloodied sleeve, The Cramps: A Period Piece embraces the haziness of 1960s cinema, combining it with the brazen garishness of the aforementioned Waters, which is then spiked with modern day feminist conversations on menstruating bodies. With Agnes’ mother and sister representing the historical societal attitudes towards menstruation of secrecy and shame, the hair salon full of colourful characters such as salon owner Laverne Lancaster (played by drag performer Martini Bear), Holiday Hitchcocker (Michelle Malentina) and everybody’s favourite satanic girly pop Teddy Teaberry (Wicken Taylor), represents a more liberated view of menstruation.

A white male doctor with shoulder length brown hair is wearing a white shirt and a white lab coat and is sitting in between the legs of a white woman examining her. He is smiling at her. An assistant who is a white woman with blonde and pink long hair wearing a white lab coat and has a pink stethoscope around her neck. she is holding a metal tray and looks expressionless

An important inclusion in the film is the experience of many women and people who menstruate within the medical field, often dismissed by practitioners despite dealing with debilitating cramps and health problems to do with menstruation. Although maybe not a film that a wider audience may get on with, The Cramps: A Period Piece treats the subject of periods with a cheeky wink and plenty of glitter and yet still contributes to the important and very poignant conversation surrounding menstruating bodies, doing it with wicked style and a swinging subversive humour.

3.5 Screams out of 5