The Knockturnal
  • Home
  • Entertainment
    • Events Film The Kontenders Theater TV All
      Events

      On the Scene: STORYTELLERS – Cynthia Erivo and André De Shields

      June 25, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      Art

      ON THE SCENE: NFT NYC COCKTAIL PARTY HOSTED BY SWOPES + SUNRISE ART…

      June 23, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: “Alien (The Other)” Premieres at Tribeca Festival

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Film

      On The Scene: Red Carpet for the Velvet Goldmine 4K restoration at Tribeca

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      On the Scene: VENGEANCE Tribeca World Premiere

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      Exclusive: Gia Coppola Talks Being One of the Directors for the Film ‘The…

      June 23, 2022

      The Kontenders

      Exclusive: Interviews At The 37th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards [video]

      March 15, 2022

      The Kontenders

      Knockturnalist: Top 20 Favorite Films of 2021

      January 9, 2022

      The Kontenders

      The Kontenders: Stepping behind the curtain of “Nightmare Alley”

      December 17, 2021

      The Kontenders

      The Kontendors: The Humanity behind the Refugee Crisis in “Flee”

      December 13, 2021

      Theater

      On The Scene: The 75th Annual Tony Awards Red Carpet!

      June 21, 2022

      Theater

      On The Scene: Inside The 2022 Tony Awards Press Room

      June 20, 2022

      Theater

      Review: Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter Captures a Child’s Despair with Not-So-Child-Friendly Humor

      June 17, 2022

      Theater

      Exclusive: The Cast and Creative Team of ‘Titanique’ Discuss the New Musical

      June 13, 2022

      TV

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: Cast of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ talks upcoming Season 3

      June 22, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: A Chat with Critter Fixer’s Stars at ABFF

      June 21, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: Bod Odenkirk Talks ‘Better Call Saul’ at the Tribeca Film Festival

      June 20, 2022

      Entertainment

      On the Scene: STORYTELLERS – Cynthia Erivo and André De Shields

      June 25, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      Entertainment

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Red Carpet for the Velvet Goldmine 4K restoration at Tribeca

      June 23, 2022

  • Music
    • Koncerts News All
      Koncerts

      The Day Party Independence Day Celebration 2022: Meek Mill

      June 24, 2022

      Koncerts

      On The Scene: Bastille Rocks Terminal 5

      June 13, 2022

      Koncerts

      On The Scene: Vance Joy Headlines Pier 17

      June 10, 2022

      Entertainment

      Lollapalooza 2022 Will Be Historic: Thank You BTS’ J-Hope

      June 7, 2022

      News

      Exclusive: Cast and Creators Talk ‘The Wire’ 20th Anniversary

      June 23, 2022

      News

      Interviews with the Cast of Tribeca Festival’s Premiere of “The Courtroom”

      June 23, 2022

      News

      NOW OPEN: MUSICA Nightclub Brings European-Style Clubbing to NYC

      June 20, 2022

      News

      Interview with Actress Samira Wiley for the Tribeca Festival Premiere of “The Gratitude…

      June 20, 2022

      Music

      The Day Party Independence Day Celebration 2022: Meek Mill

      June 24, 2022

      Music

      Exclusive: Cast and Creators Talk ‘The Wire’ 20th Anniversary

      June 23, 2022

      Music

      Interviews with the Cast of Tribeca Festival’s Premiere of “The Courtroom”

      June 23, 2022

      Music

      Lori Harvey, Justine Skye, Janelle Monáe and More Kick Off Juneteenth Weekend at…

      June 21, 2022

  • Lifestyle
    • Art Events Fashion & Beauty Sports All
      Art

      ON THE SCENE: NFT NYC COCKTAIL PARTY HOSTED BY SWOPES + SUNRISE ART…

      June 23, 2022

      Art

      Bodvár House of Rosé Throws Lush, Pastoral National Rosé Day Event

      June 14, 2022

      Art

      Exclusive: Reyna Noriega Partnered W/ BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE™ To Create ‘Thank You Cards’…

      June 3, 2022

      Art

      A toast to Opera Lafayette and their upcoming New York Baroque Musique Festival

      May 23, 2022

      Events

      I Heart NFT at Marquee in New York City

      June 24, 2022

      Events

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Events

      The DiscOasis Gets Rolling At Central Park’s Wollman Rink With Special Guest DJ…

      June 23, 2022

      Events

      Gov Ball Weekend’s Best Kept Secret: The BACARDÍ Rum Room At Mr. Purple

      June 23, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Swimming in Style This Summer with Sperry

      June 24, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      This Tasting Menu Paired Every Dish with Champange. Here’s How it Went.

      June 21, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Ever/Body Launches in New York at Grand Affair

      June 20, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Eva Longoria’s Tequila Brand “Casa Del Sol” Kicked Off The Summer With The…

      June 18, 2022

      Sports

      Carriage Driving 60th Anniversary Festivities – Join us for a day in the…

      June 16, 2022

      Sports

      Exclusive Interview With Jahfari Harvey

      May 26, 2022

      Sports

      NINJA Undergoes Full Rebrand by Creative Studio EAT

      April 20, 2022

      Sports

      On the Scene: Red Bull Dance Your Style

      March 31, 2022

      Lifestyle

      Restaurant Review: 8282

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      “Yappy Hour” To Celebrate The Best In Show

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      Restaurant Review: Filé Gumbo Bar

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      I Heart NFT at Marquee in New York City

      June 24, 2022

  • News
  • Videos
  • Covers
  • Merch
Tag:

body horror

EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

Trans Narratives in Crimes of the Future

by Ripley Padell June 9, 2022
written by Ripley Padell

Being a body is a terror once you think about it for more than a minute. A terror, a miracle, a wonderland, according to John Mayer. Few are able to tap into our primal mysteries and blow them up like the great David Cronenberg.  His new film Crimes of the Future, his first in nearly ten years, envisions a world in which evolution is outpacing the body and certain individuals begin to grow new organs. This presents a problem as the government requires the removal and classification of those organs to preserve and ratify its citizens’ humanity. This movie has everything: an inner beauty pageant, digs at performance art, Kristen Stewart enunciating, and, of course, Cronenberg’s signature body horror. It’s also his most trans-coded movie yet. 

Watching horror movies has been my preferred way to self-soothe since I was young, despite the fact that the genre has a nasty habit of vilifying trans people, specifically trans women. Think Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs and Michael Cain’s Dr. Elliot/Bobbi in Brian DePalma’s Dressed to Kill. (Watch Disclosure on Netflix for more depressing examples and brilliant analysis.) In the early days of Hollywood filmmaking, the Hays Code was set which barred any sexual perversion (aka queerness) from being shown, and these ripples are still felt nearly 90 years after its inception. But for myself and other trans folks in my circle, I find joy in watching Norman Bates appear in the cellar doorway donning a dress and sporting a crazed grin, because, well, good for her! We long to see ourselves on screen and, like life, we view film through the lens of our lived experiences. For queer and trans people that are made othered, we identify with and can reclaim the misfits and the villains because they were made in our image in the first place. There’s someone in drag on my TV screen! They just said the word “transsexual!” When you’re used to crumbs and are suddenly served leftovers, as Gordon Ramsey says, finally some good f***ing food! 

But now back to Cronenberg. Viggo Mortensen and Lea Seydoux play Saul and Caprice, a prolific and renowned performance artist duo. Saul’s body is rapidly creating new organs and Caprice surgically extracts them before a wrapt and horny audience. Pain is no longer present except when asleep, so art has evolved with the body to become physically spilling one’s guts instead of emotionally spilling them. Caprice penetrates Saul with futuristic surgical tools that look like meat and tendons made into machine. After Saul has a zipper implanted in his stomach in preparation for a secret “inner beauty pageant”, Caprice kneels down, unzips him and begins to kiss it. 

All of this to me feels Very Trans. In Crimes of the Future, people sensually cut and slice each other on the street as an expression of sex and everyone is qualified to perform their own surgeries. Saul is a male muse in a body evolving out of his control. He says, “I don’t like what’s happening with my body, which is why I keep cutting it up.” This film also stands out from Cronenberg’s body of work as one which features his signature virus originating from within the body and not outside of it. One of the joys of being trans is completely making yourself in your image, creating your own humanity with both hands from the inside out. For some trans people, this includes injecting yourself with hormones, marking your body with little pricks of pain and pleasure, and going under the knife. Saul follows this gospel as he hacks his body as performance, agency, and sex. Saul also gets his stomach slit eaten out! And he LOVES it!

Being trans is having an honorary Masters degree in the body. We are acutely aware of the minutia in each pitfall, celebration, and horror shows. We’re learned in the subtle changes our body takes on as we embark in what is often our second puberty. Changes begin to our bodies that we love, that we hate, that we don’t understand. Your body becomes more your own as it becomes more alien. We choose to customize (or not) for ourselves and simply for our safety, enhance this curve, take this one away. In Cronenberg’s dystopian new world, surgery is the new sex. But each surgery must be catalogued and registered lest humanity as this world knows it starts to evolve out of existence. Saul cannot simply let his body evolve and go along for the ride, he must have his new organs removed or else he is no longer considered human in the eyes of the state. Trans people are no strangers to body modification, and unfortunately, of having to navigate dense bureaucracy in order to do so- making appointments, acquiring letters, paying fees, navigating loopholes, languishing away on interminable wait lists.

I thoroughly enjoyed Crimes of the Future, viewing it from a trans perspective or not. Watching it felt like how I imagine a poor peasant felt when they heard Mozart’s Requiem for the first time. It has the understated weight of Dead Ringers with the mythos of Videodrome. It’s a slow burn with gorgeous filmmaking and superb acting, even if some actors felt like they were in a different movie. It subtly ramps up to its conclusion, takes one final easy inhale, and then ends, leaving you waiting to exhale in your seat.

Cronenberg is the master of body horror, making you squirm and spiral as you contemplate the loss of your autonomy, but I do not think he is a nihilist. He ends Crimes of the Future with a new hope of being a body, that what Saul thought was his body betraying him evolving past his liking was actually an invitation to a new way of being, a new future. Sound familiar?

June 9, 2022 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail
EntertainmentFilmThe Latest

Tribeca Film Festival Film Review: “Shapeless” Stylish Empathetic Body Horror

by Joshua A. Guttman June 19, 2021
written by Joshua A. Guttman

Content Warning: Eating Disorders. Body horror is a traditionally excellent way to depict anxiety.

Continue Reading
June 19, 2021 0 comment
0 FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

Digital Cover No. 15

The Knockturnal Merch

Follow Us On The Gram

Follow on Instagram

About The Site

We are a collective of creative tastemakers made up of fashion, music and entertainment industry insiders. It’s all about access. You want it. We have it.

Terms Of Use

Privacy Policy

Meet The Team

CONTACT US

For general inquiries and more info on The Knockturnal, please contact our staff at:
info@theknockturnal.com
fashion@theknockturnal.com
advertising@theknockturnal.com
editorial@theknockturnal.com
beauty@theknockturnal.com

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin
  • Youtube

© Copyright - The Knockturnal | Developed by CI Design + Media

The Knockturnal
  • Home
  • Entertainment
    • Events Film The Kontenders Theater TV All
      Events

      On the Scene: STORYTELLERS – Cynthia Erivo and André De Shields

      June 25, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      Art

      ON THE SCENE: NFT NYC COCKTAIL PARTY HOSTED BY SWOPES + SUNRISE ART…

      June 23, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: “Alien (The Other)” Premieres at Tribeca Festival

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Film

      On The Scene: Red Carpet for the Velvet Goldmine 4K restoration at Tribeca

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      On the Scene: VENGEANCE Tribeca World Premiere

      June 23, 2022

      Film

      Exclusive: Gia Coppola Talks Being One of the Directors for the Film ‘The…

      June 23, 2022

      The Kontenders

      Exclusive: Interviews At The 37th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards [video]

      March 15, 2022

      The Kontenders

      Knockturnalist: Top 20 Favorite Films of 2021

      January 9, 2022

      The Kontenders

      The Kontenders: Stepping behind the curtain of “Nightmare Alley”

      December 17, 2021

      The Kontenders

      The Kontendors: The Humanity behind the Refugee Crisis in “Flee”

      December 13, 2021

      Theater

      On The Scene: The 75th Annual Tony Awards Red Carpet!

      June 21, 2022

      Theater

      On The Scene: Inside The 2022 Tony Awards Press Room

      June 20, 2022

      Theater

      Review: Sarah Silverman’s The Bedwetter Captures a Child’s Despair with Not-So-Child-Friendly Humor

      June 17, 2022

      Theater

      Exclusive: The Cast and Creative Team of ‘Titanique’ Discuss the New Musical

      June 13, 2022

      TV

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: Cast of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ talks upcoming Season 3

      June 22, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: A Chat with Critter Fixer’s Stars at ABFF

      June 21, 2022

      TV

      Exclusive: Bod Odenkirk Talks ‘Better Call Saul’ at the Tribeca Film Festival

      June 20, 2022

      Entertainment

      On the Scene: STORYTELLERS – Cynthia Erivo and André De Shields

      June 25, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Museum of the Moving Image’s ‘Living with The Walking Dead’…

      June 24, 2022

      Entertainment

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Entertainment

      On The Scene: Red Carpet for the Velvet Goldmine 4K restoration at Tribeca

      June 23, 2022

  • Music
    • Koncerts News All
      Koncerts

      The Day Party Independence Day Celebration 2022: Meek Mill

      June 24, 2022

      Koncerts

      On The Scene: Bastille Rocks Terminal 5

      June 13, 2022

      Koncerts

      On The Scene: Vance Joy Headlines Pier 17

      June 10, 2022

      Entertainment

      Lollapalooza 2022 Will Be Historic: Thank You BTS’ J-Hope

      June 7, 2022

      News

      Exclusive: Cast and Creators Talk ‘The Wire’ 20th Anniversary

      June 23, 2022

      News

      Interviews with the Cast of Tribeca Festival’s Premiere of “The Courtroom”

      June 23, 2022

      News

      NOW OPEN: MUSICA Nightclub Brings European-Style Clubbing to NYC

      June 20, 2022

      News

      Interview with Actress Samira Wiley for the Tribeca Festival Premiere of “The Gratitude…

      June 20, 2022

      Music

      The Day Party Independence Day Celebration 2022: Meek Mill

      June 24, 2022

      Music

      Exclusive: Cast and Creators Talk ‘The Wire’ 20th Anniversary

      June 23, 2022

      Music

      Interviews with the Cast of Tribeca Festival’s Premiere of “The Courtroom”

      June 23, 2022

      Music

      Lori Harvey, Justine Skye, Janelle Monáe and More Kick Off Juneteenth Weekend at…

      June 21, 2022

  • Lifestyle
    • Art Events Fashion & Beauty Sports All
      Art

      ON THE SCENE: NFT NYC COCKTAIL PARTY HOSTED BY SWOPES + SUNRISE ART…

      June 23, 2022

      Art

      Bodvár House of Rosé Throws Lush, Pastoral National Rosé Day Event

      June 14, 2022

      Art

      Exclusive: Reyna Noriega Partnered W/ BAND-AID® Brand OURTONE™ To Create ‘Thank You Cards’…

      June 3, 2022

      Art

      A toast to Opera Lafayette and their upcoming New York Baroque Musique Festival

      May 23, 2022

      Events

      I Heart NFT at Marquee in New York City

      June 24, 2022

      Events

      Cast and Crew of ‘Trevor: The Musical’ Celebrate Special New York Screening

      June 24, 2022

      Events

      The DiscOasis Gets Rolling At Central Park’s Wollman Rink With Special Guest DJ…

      June 23, 2022

      Events

      Gov Ball Weekend’s Best Kept Secret: The BACARDÍ Rum Room At Mr. Purple

      June 23, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Swimming in Style This Summer with Sperry

      June 24, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      This Tasting Menu Paired Every Dish with Champange. Here’s How it Went.

      June 21, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Ever/Body Launches in New York at Grand Affair

      June 20, 2022

      Fashion & Beauty

      Eva Longoria’s Tequila Brand “Casa Del Sol” Kicked Off The Summer With The…

      June 18, 2022

      Sports

      Carriage Driving 60th Anniversary Festivities – Join us for a day in the…

      June 16, 2022

      Sports

      Exclusive Interview With Jahfari Harvey

      May 26, 2022

      Sports

      NINJA Undergoes Full Rebrand by Creative Studio EAT

      April 20, 2022

      Sports

      On the Scene: Red Bull Dance Your Style

      March 31, 2022

      Lifestyle

      Restaurant Review: 8282

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      “Yappy Hour” To Celebrate The Best In Show

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      Restaurant Review: Filé Gumbo Bar

      June 24, 2022

      Lifestyle

      I Heart NFT at Marquee in New York City

      June 24, 2022

  • News
  • Videos
  • Covers
  • Merch