[Review]: Puke Bitch

Kimberly Cruchon Brookes as Janet

Episodic thriller series Puke Bitch screened its first episode in a world premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in LA last month. Written and directed by Sam Tricomo, the series follows teenage siblings Dove and Larry and their neighbour Janet as they journey through their everyday life, each harbouring dark secrets and covert desires. 

Dove (played by Jaclyn Iskow) is a withdrawn teenage girl, constantly dissociating whilst dealing with uncomfortable gynecological problems. Her detached introvertness is the direct opposite of her twin brother Larry (played by Brandon Engel). Larry is somewhat extroverted, utilising his flirtatious attitude and sexuality to achieve his desires, which includes the attention of the local church’s reverend AND her son. As Larry pursues his sexual conquests, Dove discovers a strange attraction to road kill, developing a relationship with the idea of death and decay. On the periphery of the twins’ life is their neighbour Janet, also withdrawn, preferring the isolation that her earbuds and music brings her. After connecting with another woman, Tori, at a bar, Janet crosses boundaries which results in Tori’s death and the reveal of Janet’s secret urges. 

Twins Dove and Larry

Despite the first episode, entitled ACETONE, being an introduction to the world and inhabitants of Puke Bitch, there is no softly treading the grounds of the characters. The first scene is a shocking depiction of Janet, clad in pink rubber gloves, removing nail polish from her victim, and photographing their hands. Audiences are forced to feel uneasy from the word go, even with the introduction of the twins, their relationship feels uncannily unnatural, with their co-dependancy clearly crossing boundaries unsaid. 

With elements of mumblecore-style filmmaking, everything within Puke Bitch flows naturally, as if viewers are being privy to an actual day-in-the-life of a trio of unnerving characters in any average American small town. Through the characters, a link between sex and death is established, depicting just how addictive, bewitching and beguiling these facets of life are. Larry utilises sex as a tool, Janet murders and plays with the dead with the meticulous actions of a mortician, and Dove is seen to bed death and decay, treating them both with intimacy that she doesn’t seem to afford the living.

The first episode of Puke Bitch paints a mysterious and almost other-wordly picture, yet with its roots firmly planted in the average person’s normal life. Not revealing all its secrets in the initial introduction, Puke Bitch’s first episode leaves audiences dying for its next entry in this diary of its unholy trinity of Dove, Larry and Janet.

5 Screams out of 5