Synopsis

When unforeseen circumstances leave the country in ruins, a bitter ex-fashion model rises to power, only to find the two things she can't possess; beauty and love. “Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen” is based on the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her torture and murder of over 600 young women, all for the sake of beauty.

Official Review

The world as we know it has ended, not with a bang but a whimper. And in the post-Apocalyptic U.S. Midwest, a bitter and crazy former fashion model, Amber (Beverly Hynds), has assumed the title of Queen of the county in which she grew up. Amber is obsessed with being loved and growing old and young girls are mysteriously disappearing from her tattered and starving subjects. Sylvie (Courtney Kaufmann Kocak), a strong and beautiful young woman who wanders the cold and desolate countryside, trading belongings for what little food is available, encounters Matthew (Carlos A. Vio), Queen Amber’s lover and Captain of the Guards. Drugged and kidnapped, Sylvie finds herself one of Amber’s prisoners, kept in a locked junked car with dozens of other young women. When summoned by the Queen to join her court, Sylvie is cleaned up and gowned, to be closely examined by Amber to determine whether she might be more beautiful than Amber, which Sylvie is. Sentenced to be frozen to death by being stripped naked and having water thrown over her in the frigid courtyard, Sylvie is instead rescued by Matthew, who convinces Sylvie to trust and fall in love with him and shares tales of the sadistic crimes Amber has committed. He returns her to her guardian, Reggie (Gunnar Hansen), an alcoholic tombstone cutter, who has some secrets he keeps to himself and concerns about all of the missing girls which he shares with Sylvie and Matthew.



“Apocalypse and the Beauty Queen” is based on the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory and her torture and murder of over 600 young women, all for the sake of beauty. Fashion photographer and music video director Thomas Smugala, for his first feature film, along with cinematographer Jeff Barklage, has created a visually stunning movie. Creating a fairytale atmosphere through a color palette ranging from warm reds and browns in Queen Amber’s world to a chilling bluish hue in the desolate outside world of Sylvie, the film is gorgeous to watch. The screenplay, written by Smugala and James Dean Schulte, has several shocking and unexpected plot twists as well as flashbacks to Amber’s childhood and youth where her stepmother (Debbie Rochon) berates her for being “ugly” and unlovable, thereby setting the stage for Amber’s eventual insanity.


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