Possibly in Michigan

Last updated
Possibly in Michigan
Directed by Cecelia Condit
Written byCecelia Condit
StarringBill Blume
Jill Sands
Karen Skladany
Edited byDavid Narosny
Music byKaren Skladany
Running time
12 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Possibly in Michigan is a 1983 American shot-on-video [1] musical horror short film written and directed by Cecelia Condit, with music by Karen Skladany, who starred in the film as Janice. The film follows two women looking for perfumes in a department store being stalked by a cannibalistic murderer wearing a mask.

Contents

Condit considers it to be part of the "Jill Sands trilogy", which refers to three of her films which star the actress Jill Sands: Beneath the Skin , Possibly in Michigan, and Not a Jealous Bone. [2] The shopping mall and department store segments were shot at Beachwood Place in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. [3]

Plot

Two women, Sharon and Janice, are shopping at an empty department store for perfume, followed by man in a mask, mouth agape, wearing a black suit. Both women are said to have a reputation for attracting violent men and making the violence seem to be the man's idea. Arthur, the man following them, is introduced as sharing the same inclinations as Sharon and Janice.

While shopping, Janice (in a sing-song voice) said that a perfume smells like her mother's "crazy" sister Kate, who once put her wet poodle in a microwave, thinking it was a dryer, killing both herself and the dog in a fiery explosion.

Janice notices Arthur, and both women flee the department store. Sharon and Janice part ways after driving home, as Arthur follows them and stands outside Sharon's house, waiting for Janice to leave. A voiceover explains that Arthur has worn so many masks he has forgotten who he is. He approaches the front door and removes his mask, appearing as a normal man under it, and rings the doorbell.

Sharon, asleep, wakes up and goes to answer the door. When she sees who it is, she immediately drops to the ground and calls Janice. Janice arrives and aims a pistol at Arthur, shooting him several times only for him to continue inching closer. Arthur picks up a stone from Sharon's yard, revealing a rotting face beneath it, and shatters the bedroom window and breaks in. Janice escapes, shooting at various masked figures. As Sharon describes Arthur's appearance to Janice on the phone, Arthur unexpectedly comes up behind Sharon and says "the better to eat you with, my dear," (referring to his teeth) in a distorted voice. Sharon turns around as Arthur kisses her.

Repeatedly pushing Sharon onto her bed, Arthur claims that she has two options: He will either eat her immediately or slowly dismember her, claiming it's for love. Janice shoots another masked figure and arrives at Sharon's front door. Arthur, now holding a knife, pins Sharon to her bed and begins choking her. Arthur tells her that he has done this to six other women. As Sharon agrees to be the seventh woman, Janice aims her pistol at Arthur and fatally shoots him. Sharon gets up and, while looking at Arthur's corpse, she touches her lips in disgust.

The women lay Arthur's body out atop spread newspapers and begin to dismember him, making soup from his body parts. Nude, the women eat his remaining limbs, feeding scraps to their dog. While smoking cigarettes, Janice notices another masked man outside the window. She signals to Sharon as the figure hides before Sharon can see. After eating, the women wrap Arthur’s bones in newspapers and throw them into a trash bag. After putting the bags on the curb, a garbage truck comes and collects the bags, destroying the evidence.

Cast

Reception and legacy

The film received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council. [4] [5] The year the film was released, its final scene was shown on CBN and The 700 Club , where it was described as gay, anti-family, and anti-men. [6] A year later, the short film was read as lesbianism by the National Endowment for the Arts [7] and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art. [8] [9]

The short film first gained notoriety on social media in 2015, and has gained popularity among Gen Z teens. [5] [10]

Patricia Mellencamp [11] and Herman Rapaport have written about the short film. [12] Joanne Morreale called the film an example of a revenge fantasy for feminists. [13] Chris Straayer said the film was about male violence against women. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janice Soprano</span> Fictional character on the television series The Sopranos

Janice Soprano Baccalieri is a fictional character in the HBO television drama series The Sopranos and in the film The Many Saints of Newark. She is the eldest sibling of the show's protagonist, Tony Soprano. On the show, she is portrayed by Aida Turturro, and a young Janice appears in flashbacks portrayed by Madeline Blue and Juliet Fox. Alexandra Intrator portrays a young Janice Soprano in the 2021 prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Rapaport</span> American actor and comedian (born 1970)

Michael David Rapaport is an American actor, comedian, and podcast host. Beginning his career in the early 1990s, he has made over 100 appearances in film and television. His film roles include Zebrahead (1992), True Romance (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Metro (1997), Cop Land (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Big Fan (2009), and The Heat (2013). On television, he headlined the Fox sitcom The War at Home (2005–2007) and was a series regular on the Fox drama Boston Public (2001–2004), the fourth season of the Fox serial drama Prison Break (2008–2009), and the Netflix comedy drama Atypical (2017–2021). Rapaport held recurring roles on the NBC sitcoms Friends (1999), My Name Is Earl (2007–2008), and Justified (2014). Outside of his acting career, Rapaport directed the 2011 documentary Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest about the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest. Active on several podcasts, he is the host of the I Am Rapaport Stereo Podcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carnival of Venice</span> Italian annual festival

The Carnival of Venice is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy, famous throughout the world for its elaborate costumes and masks. The Carnival ends on Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday.

"Employee of the Month" is the 30th episode of the HBO original series The Sopranos and the fourth episode of the show's third season. It was written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, and directed by John Patterson, and originally aired on March 18, 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Brown Faire</span> American actress (1904–1980)

Virginia Brown Faire was an American silent film actress, appearing in dramatic films and, later, in sound westerns.

"The Knight in White Satin Armor" is the 12th episode of the second season of the HBO television series The Sopranos. It was written by Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, and directed by Allen Coulter, and originally aired on April 2, 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Visard</span> 16th century European mask for women

A visard, also known as a vizard, is an oval mask of black velvet which was worn by travelling women in the early modern period to protect their skin from sunburn. The fashion of the period for wealthy women was to keep their skin pale, because a tan suggested that the bearer worked outside and was hence poor. Some types of vizard were not held in place by a fastening or ribbon ties, and instead the wearer clasped a bead attached to the interior of the mask between their teeth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beachwood Place</span> Shopping mall in Ohio, United States

Beachwood Place is a shopping mall located in Beachwood, Ohio, an affluent Greater Cleveland suburb roughly 10 miles (16 km) from downtown Cleveland.

<i>Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy</i> 2005 American film

Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy, also known as Sharkman or simply Hammerhead, is a 2005 Syfy original movie, written by Kenneth M. Badish and Boaz Davidson, and directed by Michael Oblowitz. The film stars William Forsythe, Hunter Tylo, and Jeffrey Combs. The film premiered on Syfy on June 18, 2005.

<i>Freakshow</i> (film) 2007 American horror film directed by Drew Bell

Freakshow is a 2007 American horror film which was made by The Asylum and directed by Drew Bell. It is an unofficial remake of the Tod Browning film Freaks. According to the film poster and DVD cover art, Freakshow is banned in 43 countries, though there is no mention of which countries banned it.

Douglas Hopkins is a photographer whose fashion and beauty images have appeared in Vogue, W, Women's Wear Daily, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and The New York Times. Among his creative endeavors, he has done volcanic research and photography, has co-directed a science documentary film, founded a fine fragrance company, and has authored a book on photography, "Real Views", scheduled to be released in 2022.

Lady Killer is a 1995 drama television film directed by Steven Schachter, and stars Judith Light as a married woman who breaks off an affair with a younger man, who doesn't react well and targets her daughter. The film aired on CBS on April 5, 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sharon Van Etten</span> American singer-songwriter

Sharon Katharine Van Etten is an American singer-songwriter and actress. She has released the albums Because I Was in Love (2009), Epic (2010), Tramp (2012), Are We There (2014), Remind Me Tomorrow (2019) and We've Been Going About This All Wrong (2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecelia Condit</span> American video artist (born 1947)

Cecelia Ann Condit is an American video artist. Condit's films are noted for their attempts to subvert traditional mythologies of female representation and psychologies of sexuality and violence.

<i>Hashtag Horror</i> 2015 American film

#Horror is a 2015 American horror thriller film written and directed by Tara Subkoff, and starring Chloë Sevigny, Timothy Hutton, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning, and Balthazar Getty. The plot follows a group of wealthy 7th grade girls who face a night of terror together after a social media game that twisted out of control.

<i>Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary</i> 1975 Mexican film

Mary, Mary, Bloody Mary is a 1975 Mexican supernatural slasher film directed by Juan López Moctezuma, written by Malcolm Marmorstein, and starring Cristina Ferrare, David Young, and John Carradine. Its plot follows an American artist who discovers she is in fact a vampire, and begins consuming the locals in a Mexican village.

Arthouse musical is a combination of an art film and a film musical.

<i>Asparagus</i> (film) 1979 animated short film directed by Suzan Pitt

Asparagus is a 1979 American experimental animated short film written and directed by Suzan Pitt. Featuring music composed by Richard Teitelbaum, the film was produced over the course of four years, while Pitt was in residence at Harvard University and in Berlin, Germany. The animated portions of the film were accomplished through the use of hand-painted cels; a physical model set and puppetry are also utilized.

Beneath the Skin is a 1981 short film created by Cecelia Condit. It follows a woman's thoughts and musings towards a recent incident in which she discovered that her boyfriend was hiding the body of his ex-girlfriend in his closet.

References

  1. ↑ CECELIA CONDIT: EARLY VIDEO WORKS VHS - Lunchmeat
  2. ↑ Women in Horror: Cecelia Condit - Morbidly Beautiful
  3. ↑ "Where is Cecelia Condit's Possibly in Michigan filmed?". Reddit.com. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  4. ↑ Peirse, Alison (2020-09-17). Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre. Rutgers University Press. ISBN   978-1-9788-0513-2.
  5. 1 2 Chiaverina, John (6 November 2019). "How This 71-Year-Old Video Art Pioneer Became a TikTok Star". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  6. ↑ "The art of being a provocateur". Isthmus. 18 February 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  7. 1 2 Straayer, Chris (1996). Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-orientations in Film and Video. Columbia University Press. p. 291. ISBN   978-0-231-07979-2.
  8. ↑ "Video: Recent Acquisitions". MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  9. ↑ "MoMA TO INAUGURATE NEW VIDEO GALLERY WITH EXHIBITION OF RECENT ACQUISITIONS" (PDF) (Press release). New York: The Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. April 1984. Retrieved 2021-09-16.
  10. ↑ Gat, Orit (26 July 2019). "How Cecelia Condit's Video Art Became a Viral Curse for Teens on TikTok". Frieze. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
  11. ↑ Mellencamp, Patricia (1990-09-22). Indiscretions: Avant-Garde Film, Video, and Feminism. Indiana University Press. p. 138. ISBN   978-0-253-11599-7.
  12. ↑ Rapaport, Herman (2018-07-05). Between the Sign and the Gaze. Cornell University Press. p. 278. ISBN   978-1-5017-2959-1.
  13. ↑ Morreale, Joanne (2002-12-01). Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader. Syracuse University Press. p. 259. ISBN   978-0-8156-2983-2.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.