Flip Wilson’s famous line was ‘The Devil made me do it,” so we have the Canadian film Son of Sara: Volume One arriving carrying the weight of one of horror cinema’s most recognizable premises. From the moment its pregnant heroine begins experiencing increasingly disturbing events, comparisons to Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby and countless other works are inevitable.
Director, writer, and editor Houston Bone neither hides nor apologizes for those influences. Instead, he embraces them, filters them through a contemporary queer perspective, and delivers a film that is equal parts Satanic horror, camp melodrama, body horror, and pitch-black comedy.
In this case, it is a play on the “Immaculate Conception ” theme that the traditional “mother of the Antichrist” is a lesbian couple preparing for parenthood. Sara and Carol are not merely victims of occult conspiracies; they become representatives of queer families forced to navigate institutions, traditions, and expectations that have historically sought to control their lives and bodies. Biblical reference in the name Sara as the mother of nations who at one time doubted God’s existence.
“Sara and Carol are not merely victims of occult conspiracies; they become representatives of queer families…”
Chloe Van Landschoot in the role of Sara gives a somewhat screamy, over-the-top feel to the role. Her physical performance deserves enormous praise, along with her out-of-proportion baby bump. Every scream, contraction, bout of sickness, and there are plenty of those vomit moments, gives the effect of the giant screams of Marilyn Burns running through Leatherface’s house of horrors in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She never worries about appearing glamorous, instead embracing the ugly physical realities that horror often exaggerates into nightmare.
The most inventive and clever moment in Son Of Sara Volume One is the unabashed orgasm between the pregnant Sara and her female lover Carol, played d by Tymika Tafari at the film’s beginning. This is perhaps body horror like David Cronenberg, who staged intense sexual moments in wrecked cars in Crash. Just two people who love each other giving each other non-heterosexual pleasure without the gratuitous softcore fades. This moment cements their relationship, showing intimacy without the cliches. Carol does the male role of holding Sara’s head when she vomits. Goes to work and provides for the home; later becomes the rescuer who takes a strong punch to the head and survives.
"…delivers a film that is equal parts Satanic horror, camp melodrama, body horror, and pitch-black comedy."
