Editorials
Confronting Carter Smith’s Queer Horror Short ‘Bugcrush’ [Formative Fears]
Formative Fears is a column that explores how horror scared us from an early age, or how the genre contextualizes youthful phobias and trauma. From memories of things that went bump in the night, to adolescent anxieties made real through the use of monsters and mayhem, this series expresses what it felt like to be a frightened child – and what still scares us well into adulthood.
Before he directed The Ruins, photographer-turned-director Carter Smith adapted Scott Treleaven’s story “Bugcrush” from the book Queer Fears II. Like the source material it is based on, this half-hour movie follows a teenage boy whose curiosity about a new classmate leads him and the viewers to a dark place. Grant (Donald Cumming) is the alluring new student whose mystery and defiance catches the attention of Ben (Josh Cara), and when Grant reciprocates those feelings, Ben’s troubles truly begin.
The horror genre is a source of comfort for people everywhere, and the reasons vary from one fan to another. Generally, there is something about seeing characters trapped in dire situations, where they often only have themselves to count on, that can be empowering to watch. Catharsis comes in waves, victory is celebrated, and against all odds, the survivors persevere and emerge ideally braver and stronger than before.
Yet with scarring horror like Bugcrush, finding consolation is complicated. The initial frustration I feel when watching Ben’s nightmare unfold is further followed by unavoidable reflection in light of my own similar experiences.
The excitement is evident as Ben accepts Grant’s invitation to his house one fateful day. The only hitch, however, is Grant’s two pals tag along for the “date.” Once they all arrive at the outlying location, Grant seduces his guest with endearments first and then a suspicious anecdote. In this amatory account of his, Grant details the chance encounter with an unusual bug whose bites induce immense ecstasy and sedation. It’s not long before Ben and Grant are alone somewhere else with a conspicuous bed on the floor. The nervousness of the scene is swiftly replaced with outright dread as Ben feels a sharp bite on the back of his neck. Using an embrace as cover, Grant applied one of the aforesaid insects to his admirer in hopes of relaxing him. Ben’s panic subsides momentarily before he realizes what’s in store for him as Grant’s friends now enter the space.
What happens next is unmistakable even without direct confirmation. It is also disturbing because of the fact we never see anything beyond a series of ominous signals before the end credits roll. The focus on Grant’s unbuttoned fly as he hovers over his subdued prey, Ben’s isolated and paralyzed stare as he is helplessly flipped onto his stomach, and a din of disembodied, guttural grunts from the perpetrators – everything here suggests the final scene finishing with a gang rape. Young queer stories frequently chronicle the malicious side of coming out, or the violence inflicted on someone for simply existing as their authentic selves; Smith and Treleaven uphold the tradition with severity. What we ultimately wanted to happen between Ben and Grant, never does, and for that, we as the audience feel guilty for encouraging the encounter in the first place. Never did we want such a thing to happen to Ben, but perhaps we were more invested in our own entertainment than his actual safety.
This achievement in unexpectation also winds up being a discerning study of a gay teen who seeks approval among his straight peers. Like so many of us raised in heteronormative cultures where being seen as different can have adverse consequences, it only makes sense Ben tries to fit in as a way to not stand out. He has to traverse the confusing social landscape that is high school and gauge how to act around different groups there. He can be fairly open with close friends, but with people like Grant, Ben treads carefully. He approaches the object of his affection with temperate eagerness and becomes silent when his lackeys teasingly ask him if he likes girls. Although pretense ebbs once Grant shares his tale of autoerotic discovery in the woods, Ben still tries not to overstep his bounds in this circle of seemingly heterosexual males; even if both sides were testing the waters earlier on to see what unspoken rules have some flexibility.
When growing up in a conservative area without a visible safety net of queer friends and allies, you may learn to toe the line and never loudly oppose the implicit agreement that heterosexuality is the de facto norm. Relatedly, Bugcrush is set in an average small town that appears rural but is still developed despite Treleaven noting the area hadn’t made the same “giant social strides” as the big cities. Given that detail and words of caution from friends when he tells them he likes Grant, discretion is a must for someone like Ben because one false move could get him ostracized or hurt. He wants to follow his heart like any other lovestruck teenager, but there are caveats like his needing to be with someone he can trust with his secret. Of course, Grant ends up taking advantage of Ben – emotionally and physically – and that betrayal is why this story is accessible to anyone caught on the receiving end of duplicity.
In the absence of touchable closure, Bugcrush ends abruptly without making the victim’s fate known. Other stories about sexual violence are prone to showing some kind of resolution, whereas here, we see a person robbed of his agency, then dehumanized again and again until the screen cuts to black. This might read like a case of showing torture for entertainment, but so much of what befalls Ben can be applicable when trying to communicate a singular and devastating experience to those unaware. Following such trauma, it can be difficult describing those specific feelings felt during, much less years after the fact. So it is jarring how vividly Smith captured that distinct elixir of hopelessness, shame and terror which, for some people, will never quite go away — but it may become more manageable with time and help. How Ben would cope is something we will unfortunately never know.
Bugcrush does not make an easy play for comfort, and any solace it does inspire, may just be incidental. At best, the movie’s irresolute conclusion can urge others in a roundabout way, including myself, to close those chapters of our lives that keep us feeling so very haunted. And for my own sake, I hope to start working toward the ending I only wish Ben could have had.
I compare a movie as open-ended and contestable as this to a recurring bad dream which stops at the same place each and every time. Just as it gets to the most intense part of the sequence, I wake up to a flurry of unsettling emotions and thoughts now needing context and appraisal. My interpretation of such a raw and brutal story won’t be the same as someone else’s seeing as how I personally identify with Ben’s ordeal, but without a doubt, Smith’s push for harsh uncertainty will bring out a visceral reaction in everyone as they watch a hapless ‘bug’ get crushed.
Editorials
Before ‘The Blair Witch Project’, ‘Alien Autopsy’ Showed How Real Found Footage Could Feel
The line separating artist from con man is a lot thinner than you might initially believe. While I think we can all agree that lying for the sake of profit is actively malicious behavior, isn’t it also true that the faux documentary aspect of The Blair Witch Project is half the reason why that film became such a cultural phenomenon? After all, if there’s one thing filmmakers have in common with stage magicians, it’s that misleading and misdirecting audiences is simply part of the job.
That’s why I’ve developed a habit of mostly ignoring the moral quandaries behind many of film and television’s biggest “hoaxes” in favor of appreciating the narrative elements that drive productions like Mermaids: The Body Found and even Animal Planet’s highly underrated The Cannibal in the Jungle. However, if there’s a definitive case of a highly publicized broadcast fooling the world into taking it seriously, it has to be Fox’s infamous 1995 TV special Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction.
It’s been over three decades since that eerie footage first haunted television screens right at the peak of the ’90s ufology craze, and in that time, the video has taken on a life of its own. From countless parodies and references in everything from The X-Files to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (as well as John Dower’s recently released tell-all documentary The Alien Autopsy Scandal, which I’d highly recommend to genre fans everywhere), there’s no denying the legacy of the Alien Autopsy video. However, I rarely see the tape discussed as what it truly is: a highly convincing found footage film directed by a passionate stage magician and brought to life by masterful practical effects work.
That’s why I’d like to invite readers to join me on a deep dive into one of the most infamous broadcasts of all time in an attempt to reevaluate the footage as a fascinating narrative experience rather than a complete hoax.
The TV Special That Convinced Millions It Was Real
Ray Santilli next to Extraterrestrial replica in ‘The Alien Autopsy Scandal’
For starters, regardless of whether or not you believe that there was in fact an extraterrestrial crash in Roswell during the summer of 1947 and that some form of autopsy was performed on the victims, the producers behind the black & white recordings, Ray Santilli and Gary Shoefield, insist that their video was a “restoration.” Though I’d argue that the proper word is “remake”of genuine footage that was too damaged to air on television. That’s why the duo went on to recruit filmmaker and eccentric magician Spyros Melaris and sculptor/monster designer John Humphreys to bring their version of the autopsy to life and sell it to the highest bidder.
This is where the story of the Alien Autopsy as a narrative experience really begins. Melaris claims that his approach to the faux recording consisted of striving for extreme period accuracy in both shooting equipment and setting while also planting subtle details that would initially seem like mistakes but could later be revealed to actually fit the time period. That being said, the filmmaker was under the impression that the short would be released for free as a PR stunt, with the team later producing and selling an informative documentary chronicling exactly how the footage was faked and commenting on how easy it is to manipulate public perception with a good old-fashioned magic trick.
This obviously isn’t how things went down, and that’s likely the reason why Melaris has since distanced himself from everyone else involved with the project. Yet, no amount of behind-the-scenes drama can undermine the genuine effort that went into making the short as impressive as it is. From the sourcing of real animal organs from a local butcher to make the organic part of the creature more lifelike to the highly detailed sculpt that made use of a hollowed-out underlayer that could be filled with fake blood and assorted viscera, there’s a reason why so many Hollywood specialists are still impressed with the artistry on display here.
Of course, the believability is only half the story, as I think that the best part of the autopsy is how Melaris builds on the existing tension by obscuring certain details and often embracing the chaos of what a real examination of extraterrestrial life could feel like. The camera often goes out of focus at just the right time to make certain effects hit even harder, and we can only speculate as to what the hazmat-suited doctors are gesticulating about during the operation. There’s a real air of mystery to the whole thing that almost makes it feel like a cosmically terrifying, cursed film containing forbidden knowledge that civilians were never meant to see.
So when Fox’s Fact or Fiction brings in the specialists to comment on the film and its otherworldly subject, it’s no surprise that we end up with one of the most memorable mockumentaries of all time – albeit one where the participants are unaware that the footage they’re commenting on is basically a large-scale practical joke. A joke that the network was obviously in on, as many participants claim that the TV special cut out significant portions where guests point out that they believe the footage to be an elaborate hoax.
The Lasting Impact of the Hoax Turned Cultural Event
Regardless, I remember going to bed terrified after watching reruns of the special and thinking about the respected pathologist who claimed that the body was almost certainly inhuman, with even effects maestro Stan Winston commenting on how difficult it would be to recreate some of these visuals through practical puppetry. That’s not even mentioning Jonathan Frakes’ dramatic hyping up of the disturbing imagery as if he was talking about the tape from The Ring, with his spooky demeanor here likely being responsible for his later role as the host of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction a few years later.
Personally, I’d argue that the Alien Autopsy phenomenon had just as much of an impact on me as a horror fan as The Blair Witch Project, a film that was almost certainly influenced by the success of this immensely popular hoax (to the point where they even produced their own TV special commenting on Heather’s found footage). Even if Fox didn’t intend to produce a narrative feature about the aftermath of the Roswell crash, the end product still holds up remarkably well as a highly entertaining mockumentary exploring the idea that we may not be alone in the universe.
While neither Santilli nor the rest of the production team has ever commented on this, I also think it’s very likely that the idea of a faux Alien Autopsy could have been influenced by Dean Alioto’s The McPherson Tape/UFO Abduction. I’ve already written about how this granddaddy of found footage was co-opted by rogue ufologists who began selling bootlegs of the tape at conventions as if it were real evidence of a close encounter, so it’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that Santilli and company could have heard about this phenomenon and been inspired to come up with their own highly profitable hoax.
At the end of the day, it’s unlikely that the Alien Autopsy film is recreating any real footage from Roswell, but I can still appreciate the short and the accompanying television event as a standalone horror story that still influences the way we see found footage to this very day.
After all, the possibility that something could be real is often much scarier than finding out for sure – and that’s why I think Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction is still worth revisiting three decades down the line.
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