After finishing production on Erica’s First Holy S**t, the artist had a revelation and is now running for mayor in real life, running on a platform of affordable housing. This case of life imitating art has rendered the movie the most f****d up campaign video of all time. It has a lovely countercultural stance that will shock the squares and delight the freaks. Nix uses lots of reclaimed female nudity to feminist body-positive ends, like the way Annie Sprinkle and Karen Finley used to tear it up. Watch out, those flesh lasers are set to kill.
Stoltz and Von Stilb’s screenplay follows the true cult path of getting weirder and weirder throughout its running time. The green screen effects employed by the trio of directors are reminiscent of the work of Tim and Eric. In fact, Erica’s First Holy S**t delivers everything I had expected and hoped for from Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie. The unreality of the effects enhances the surrealism, especially when using garden products that are still illegal in Austin.
“…start screaming with delight.”
Nix has a knack for comedy and comes across as a Daffy Duck Dante being guided through a queer inferno. Special mention has to go out to Solieu’s performance as mother nature. Solieu really gives one a glimpse of how vast Austin’s weirdness can be. Also, props to Flores for one of the best depictions of Satan since Peter Stormare’s Keanu Reeves licking turn in Constantine. Her pragmatic princess of darkness is dangerously convincing.
While I love a lot of the film, I wish the movie played more with the constant rent-raising waves threatening to wash all the weird out of Austin. It is referenced but never feels like the destructive force in the story that it is in real life. However, Erica’s First Holy S**t definitely pushes the envelope after licking the s**t out of it. Put this movie in your face and start screaming with delight.
Erica’s First Holy S**t screened at Prism 35: Austin Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
"…comes across as a Daffy Duck Dante being guided through a queer inferno."
