By David Dent
‘Fear the monster within’ is the tagline of Samantha Aldana’s debut feature. It’s the story of Louisiana based Ivy (the film’s co-writer Kelly Murtagh), dry cleaning worker by day and torch singer by night. Whether busking with her bass player Oscar (Bobby Gilchrist), or aspiring to sing at a more upmarket club, the music’s in her blood.
But something else is too. Ivy keeps herself to herself and there’s a reason for that; a solitary existence allows her to hide away her twin demons of bulimia and Body Dysmorphia.
Ivy has talent – she longs to upgrade from the dive bar where she sings, but her passion for music is compromised by her compulsions, triggered by anything from confrontation, attention and eventually just by being around others.
‘Shapeless’ is an internal horror movie where the nature of the beast lies within Ivy. Ivy’s BD causes visions of growths on her body, but she’s the only one to see them. Aldana shoots Murtagh through broken or distorted glass, or else her conversations with others are refracted by mirrors; everything about Ivy is dislocated or decayed, including – increasingly – her apartment (I’m going to guess Polanski’s ‘Repulsion’ may have been an influence).
Don’t expect anything to happen in this film; it’s a document of one woman’s battle against twin illnesses which confound understanding or treatment. But the audience can – and does – sympathise with Murtagh as Ivy, who only wishes to sing and fit in, but remains lost.
Shapeless will be available to Own or Rent from 19th September
Bloody Flicks 