The Dutch horror film The Human Centipede (2009) and the current season of The Boys on Amazon Prime have put the spotlight on that body part that most of us are more comfortable keeping hidden. Yes, the Anus has been gaining more and more screentime in recent years, and now it earns even more respect in Erica's First Holy Shit, a gleefully hallucinogenic mockumentary that has to be seen to be believed, and even then you just might not.
Here, Mother Nature's sphincter is utilized as the gateway to Satan's office where the Evil One (Andie Flores) fashions deals. For example, a former client, RuPaul, sold his soul for fame in this very rectum. "How else would a drag queen get an Emmy?" Beezlebub gloats.
The lead character here is one Erica Nix, who's portrayed by one Erica Nix, a seductive presence with Ann-Margret tresses and an oversized libido. This causes one to wonder whether the real-life version of Ms. Nix is a whole lot like her film persona, a compulsively masturbating lesbian who goes around in bathing suits that leave very little to the imagination. That's when she's even wearing swimwear.
This feature, by the way, was shot during the highly nerve-wracking beginnings of the Covid era (June 2020) in Austin, Texas, by three directors collectively known as THIS IS NOT A CULT (Jessica Garner, Sawyer Stoltz and Jeremy Von Stilb). Two of the three are also responsible for the spicy leftist screenplay. Consequently, many of the scenes were shot against a bluescreen.
Holy Shit begins with a Zoom group-therapy sex session that lasts for a rather frenetic seven minutes. In each of the screen's nine little cubicles, determined women are aiming to bring the "universal elemental force of pleasure" into their beings employing paddles, vibrators, and feathers among other artifacts. (I think I spotted an eggplant and a pickle also in use, but don't hold me to it.)
After this orgasmic opening, her online compatriots seem sated, but not Ms. Nix, who has an itch that demands more:
"Here I am with tons of people happy to see me running around in my Spandex thong, but at the end of the day, what do I have? What am I doing?"
Well, at this moment, she is loudly plopping out her tampon and placing it into a glass of water being held by one of her twin male slaves, or so they seem.
Frustrated, Erica decides to quit her shrink, whom she feels has been holding her back. Now the peverse Wizard of Oz adventure begins in her bathtub after she squirts on a facial mask with the ingredients that include vodka, psilocybin, and methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Wouldn't you like to be Erica's pores? No wonder she's tripping.
Well, before you say, "Lindsey Graham" twice, our ultra-feminist heroine is schmoozing with a ditsy Gwyneth Paltrow (Lynn MetCalf), Mother Nature (Christeene), God (Nikki DaVaughn), and Ms. Nix's teenage self (p1nkstar) who also seems to be suffering from chronic masturbatory needs. The real Richard Simmons pops in now and then, too. No wonder Erica decides to run for mayor of Austin, promising free abortions for all and more shade at bus stops. And no wonder the population of Austin comes out for wildly inane and almost Hello, Dolly!-esque finale.
Whether you’ll be charmed by this offering, as I admittedly I was at times, or whether Big Shit will cause you to switch your political affiliation to something more rightwing, depends a whole lot on whether you are a fan of early John Waters and Jack Smith films, have a crush on Annie Sprinkle, or have a supply of Alice B. Toklas brownies on hand.
Rating: Five Pepto Bismols
(Erica's Big Shit premiered to sold-out screenings at PRISM 35: GLIFF's 35th Annual LGBTQ+ Film Festival in Austin the end of August. It will now be flushing out at festivals across the country.)