The Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta (2013)
Company: Troma
Starring: Pascal Maetens, Karel Vingerhoets, Celine
Verbeeck, Eline Danasovsky, Sofie Hoflack, Andreas Perschewski.
My Review and Thoughts:
Well leave it up to Troma to bring out a movie like this. If
you know me I am a huge B-movie, Drive-In late-night Cult status film buff. I
collect low budget cheesy pieces of cinema. Many of my collection consist of
wonderful cheesy films by the one and only company Troma.
Troma never fails in
bringing out wonderful over the top, Cult type films, and behold The Thingy is
a prime example of that over the top cheesy glory that I look forward to. This
is pure original, spelled out with a Capital O. I thought I had seen it all and
heard the most outrageous title to a movie, but now I stand corrected. The
Thingy is clearly one of kind and is a film that will make you think that you
just seen everything possible.
To spew out the plot you have a bodybuilder named Marianne
who gives birth to a living Placenta. A mother’s love shows no bounds. She
keeps and raises the Placenta as her loving child. Her goal is to make sure her
child grows and lives a normal life. She gives her living child Placenta the
name Luke. Add in a mixture of whores, junkies and drunk people, mixing with
the world of lust, judgmental society and the idea of faith and you have the
plot to this film. Luke tries to find acceptance in the world.
Believe it or not this movie does have an important message
behind it. Love has no boundaries. The love of a mother. An idea of an insane
world. A judgmental world. A struggle of belonging. Mainly the aspects of
finding oneself and finding the love that should prevail. If all that makes sense,
then you get what this movie details. This is a grindhouse style film. A
comical, satire and pure Drive-In entertainment.
I laughed so hard at times. I personally don’t know how
these actors and actresses kept a straight face. I bet you there had to be a
lot of outtakes.
Directed by Joël Rabijns and Yves Sondermeier. This is both
directors first feature length film. Both have done short films, but this is
the first feature length production. This was originally released in 2013, it
has taken a very long time to come out to the public.
Thankfully Troma has
bought this out for one of there Team Releases and it goes right up there with
there style of cinema. Originally titled The Miracle of Life.
The two-main characters besides the Placenta (smirks), is
Marianne and Father Julio Gritty. Marianne is played wonderfully by Pascal Maetens.
Gives a laugh out funny reality. How a straight face was kept and how Pascal
made a straight forward reality in making you see a seriousness in the
character and what the plot was, makes you see Pascal’s acting ability, even
with it’s low budget reality. Pascal made you believe the reality taking place
if that’s possible. Karel Vingerhoets who plays Father Julio, cracked me up. I
thought he truly was the best character besides the Placenta puppet.
This is another solid Blu-ray release by Troma the
wonderment of outrageous cinema. The Thingy was a perfect choice for Troma to
bring out.
Audio/Video:
My Rating: 3 out of 5
This was filmed in a grindhouse style of entertainment and
you should expect that type of reality when watching this film. The colors at
times are vibrant and the Placenta and gore effects work splendid with the
quality of imagery. The sound works crisp. A solid low budget style film.
Dolby, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Extras:
My Rating: 4 out of 5
A great collection of special features. It has the all-important
introduction by the man himself Lloyd Kaufman (President of Troma Entertainment
and creator of The Toxic Avenger). Always a treat to hear Lloyd, and Troma fans,
(at least I do), look forward to this added feature on all Troma’s and Troma
Team releases. This time around as always Lloyd had me rolling in comical
banter. His introduction was truly priceless. Gut busting.
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical trailer
Featurette: “Am I Really That Ugly?”
Featurette: “Ham”
Radiation March
Troma Now Xtreme Edition
Return To Nuke Em High Volume 1 Theatrical Trailer
Return To Return To Nuke Em High AKA Volume 2 Theatrical
Trailer
Overall:
I have to say this is one of Troma wildest, weirdest and
craziest examples of films bought out by them on the Team Release, for their fans. Diehard Troma
lovers and collectors with scoop this right up and create a Cult following of
this film. This has all the trademarks of a Cult status film. I can see this
growing a fan base, and laughing, smirking and most of all enjoying all it’s
over the top strangeness.
INFO:
Make sure you head over to
https://www.troma.com/ to buy all the wonderful DVD’s and
Blu-rays. The main page that gives you these beautiful releases on top quality
Special Editions.
Also head over and like Troma on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TROMAENTERTAINMENT%20/