Our power want for self-care can generally really feel like its personal sickness. Whether or not you’re slapping in your each day deodorant or attending a weekly remedy session, “taking care” of your self means managing the signs of being a living-breathing particular person… perpetually. It’s annoying, time-consuming, and, on this planet of wellness advertising, a profitable and consumable fixed. In “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick,” filmmaker Pete Ohs examines snake oil tradition as a method for exploiting each anxiousness and concern.
Co-written by the director/editor/producer and the film’s 4 lead actors, this sunny-yet-claustrophobic nightmare asks if the fake “therapeutic” mentality — seen right here as a stranger-danger model of a weekend getaway you solely assume you understand — is actually what’s making fashionable individuals sick. Foregoing the influencer-inspired sheen of one thing like the wonder thriller “Skincare,” this decidedly unusual SXSW premiere follows the grieving Yvonne (Zoë Chao) right into a pal’s rustic house and unsettling life.
White linens, entire grains, gorgeous landscapes, and the prospect to “unplug” await Yvonne at a distant location. The promise of getting again to fundamentals in a time of emotional turmoil is recognizable — notably to millennials of a sure age — however the true nature of the tragedy impacting the protagonists isn’t clear at first. When the bird-like Camille (Callie Hernandez, additionally a producer) opens the entrance door to her picturesque cottage and brings Yvonne inside, her already-emotional home visitor is troubled to search out she’ll be sharing the intimate and idyllic area with two males she doesn’t know.
An ingenious prepare dinner named AJ (James Cusati-Moyer) and his actual property agent boyfriend, Isaac (Jeremy O. Harris, producer), welcome the brand new arrival with open arms, at the same time as an intense sense of discomfort settles over the scene. The oblivious hostess and her granola maybe-roommates/maybe-lovers(??) begin out innocent sufficient. There’s nothing incorrect with encouraging Yvonne to get up early and catch a “resplendent” dawn — or to forego her favourite consolation meals and take a look at the chef’s uncommon delicacies — is there? Yvonne, nonetheless shell-shocked from tragedy and staring down a bowl of what appears to be like like free-range vomit, would beg to vary if the vibes weren’t already so dangerous. Is she overreacting? Or are they pushing?
Normalcy and construction can do wonders for a cherished one coping with a tricky time. And but, “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” makes the trio nagging Yvonne to work by no matter mysterious trauma is ailing her — within the most Anthropologie-like fashions possible — really feel extra like a psychological assault. The result’s vaguely akin to a extra queer tackle the Armitage property from “Get Out,” however is perhaps higher described as Marnie’s wedding ceremony episode from HBO’s “Ladies” crossed over with the 2006 sci-fi horror film, “Slither.” That second comparability oversells the gore a bit, however the James Gunn traditional is a powerful trace for style aficionados seeking to guess on the true nature of the tick terror Ohs has in play.
Well mannered solutions morph into silent judgment earlier than the awkward strain builds to some extent so tremendous not even tweezers may pull the thorny social state of affairs out. Fed-up together with her pal however nonetheless famished from all that farm-to-table bullshit, Yvonne storms into the yard woods after just some days. It’s solely a stroll to clear her head, she thinks, however again at Camille’s (and AJ’s and Isaac’s), no actual act of self-care can go unpunished. The following morning, Yvonne gazes deep right into a classic mirror as she extracts a blood-sucking freeloader from her shoulder blade. The chunk is dangerous. She ought to go to the hospital, proper? Mistaken. The therapy for something that has ever damage anybody, her cozy captors say, is already right here.
Lyme illness usually lasts between two to 4 weeks when met with the suitable course of antibiotics. Operating a breezy 80 minutes, “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” goes by quicker than that — though a little bit countryside atmosphere goes an extended, great distance. Ohs’ newest function isn’t fairly as sturdy as his first movie (he co-directed “Every thing Lovely Is Far Away” with Andrea Sisson in 2017) and he may have used a collaborator keen to make extra aggressive edits. Certain, that may have the potential to grind the film’s length to this point down that it is perhaps reclassified as a brief. However relating to not losing the valuable useful resource of time, there’s no use nursing unbroken pores and skin.
Intriguing as it’s tedious, this wobbly narrative appears to yearn for the authorial readability of a bee sting however nonetheless hangs on like a confused parasite. There’s loads of symbolism to unpack right here, notably because it pertains to the forged’s ever-shifting queer dynamic and the philosophical collision between Yvonnne’s vulnerability and the opposite’s snide critiques. However what begins as a mesmerizing exhibition of detachment — anchored in a temper of stylish condescension and indifference so fashionable it must be on a Pinterest board — devolves right into a lackadaisical cruelty that’s much less compelling and never cohesive.
Regardless of having one in all its characters reference the title verbatim (which for good or dangerous obtained a giant chortle from me), “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” proves usually ineffective as a dramatic query. A peer-reviewed research from the Mayo Clinic would possibly depart audiences with a extra satisfying, much less ethereal reply. However Ohs’ difficult new different to extra commonplace style fare continues to be pleasant as a recent and gutsy experiment. The aesthetic boasts simply sufficient creepiness to make you itch between scenes, and the movie’s extra-slippery lead performers/writers vacillate between the sinister and serene sides of leisure with such pace and ease that small-bladdered people ought to rethink the toilet.
After all, you understand what’s greatest for you higher than anybody else. That’s very true relating to indulging in initiatives like Ohs’ weird creature function dissecting one-sided relationships and so-called self-care. A recipe for impatience with the incorrect cinephiles however an modern salve to the precise ones, “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” makes an enduring impression — even whether it is blotchy, pale, and a number of other rings shy of hitting that traditional tick-bite bullseye mark.
Grade: C+
“The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” premiered at SXSW 2025.
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