Pussy Cake Review

The great guys at Scream Box let me have an early watch of Argentinian splatterfest PussyCake which will stream exclusively on Screambox on August 30th, and what a ride!

The Movie starts with a young lad working away at his computer, the imagery appearing on screen lets us know that professor Hector Russo has gone missing; seemingly while working on a project that has opened up portal to another dimension. We quickly realise this missing Prof is the kids dad and he’s trying to find him. Luckily enough good old dad’s left a D.I.Y. Stargate style portal creator in the basement lab, which by the way is one of the best looking bits of set building I’ve seen for a while, you look at it and think “If I built a portal machine that’s what it would look like”. The kid goes down with his fixed bit of computer code, slaps it into the system and “HEY MORTY!!” gets a quick glimpse into another dimension, but then things go a bit wrong Dad’s back, but looking a tad slimier than he did when he left.

Let’s leave the family to get reaquainted shall we, i.e. no spoilers here; yet…

Then we see the titular band on stage PUSSY CAKE! a struggling all girl rock band kicking off a new tour with their manager on a promise of a lucrative record deal from her friend Simon.

The girls embark on a road trip to their next gig, to meet up with Simon to find out if the record deal is a go. When they arrive in town they find the attention of horrors from beyond our reality, Simon is not looking too healthy, and band member Juli has had 3 too many acid tabs and is trippin’ balls as she skips off to the beach in a beautiful musical interlude. No seriously, it’s genius.

The girls very rapidly get caught up battling these zombie like people controlled by parasitic beings stuck to the back of their heads and a mysterious cloaked figure who we don’t know is friend or foe.

International horror maven Pablo Parés (Plaga Zombie) directs from a script by Maxi Ferzzola. Maca Suárez (The Accused), Anahi Politi (Crystal Eyes), and Flor Moreno (The Talking Guts) star alongside newcomers Aldana Ruberto and Sofia Rossi. PussyCake premiered at Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre in December, earning the Audience Award for Best Feature.

Spoilers ahead

So what did I think of Pussy Cake? yes, there may be “spoilers” as I discuss certain elements of the film here but in a mad gore filled film like this who cares right?! You can just go watch the film first then come back to this bit if you like. Ready? O.K.

This is the first film by Pablo Pares I’ve seen, and with previous film titles like Plaga Zombie: Zona Mutante and 100% Lucha: El Amo De Los Clones I doubt it’s going to be the last!

Pussy Cake is a bit of hit and miss affair I’m afraid, some scripting issues (based on the English subtitles only) make it a little hard to follow at times, and often I was left wondering what the point was. However decent performances from the main cast, superb costume design and absolutely phenomenal special make up effects let you overlook that a little easier.

The little alien parasite things are well done, they look pretty cool on the back of their victims head, making them spew mushroom soup all over people. The film was originally titled Emesis El Amor Mata, “emesis, love kills” Emesis is the medical way of saying vomiting so if you thought Pussy Cake was a weird title, there you go!

“Zombies” projectile spewing on you to infect you rather than having to bite you is 100% scarier, why don’t more films have this as a thing?

Juli’s tripping scene where she goes off and finds the “heads” is such a fun bit of the film, loved it.

The big hulking, is he a baddy or a goody and is he the kid from the beginning cos he’s got the machine cover as a cloke looks great, basically He-Man meets the Jedi Kel Dor

The effect of vomiting is great, as is all the gore we see on screen. Hats off to Marcos Berta for the special effects make up in this, fantastic throughout.

The sound later in the film is often at the cusp of being robotic, a strange metallic vibe to it in the mix spoils it, but I couldn’t work out if that was to give it a more other worldly feel. It didn’t work for me.

The cinematography at times during this is great, some of the close ups are delightful and give a feeling of some of the movies the film gives nods too, and speaking of that…

This film has so many “nods” to other films it’s like an easter egg hunt. The kid wears a Rick and Morty top, it’s very “From Beyond” at the beginning, the portal is Stargate lite, there are noises that are very “Predator”, there’s Evil Dead moments, Halloween moments definite “There is no Dana, Only Zuul” vibes and I’m pretty sure there’s even a nod to Krang from TMNT at one point.

I’d give this film a 7/10 for it’s sheer gory, splatter filled horror goodness. It’s clips along at a decent pace, it just doesn’t really seem to know where it’s going and by the end I didn’t really care where that was, I just wanted it to get there covered in blood and mushroom soup.

Great special effects make up, fantastic set and prop design and overall a fun watch and well worth your time (there’ll be at least 1 scene you’ll want to rewatch a few times, like all good horrors) and I can certainly see why it won awards at a horror film festival.

“PussyCake is a wild and crazy ride that delivers all the bloody goods, and we’re excited to share the chaos with horror fans on Screambox and beyond,” says Cinedigm Manager of Acquisitions Brandon Hill. ScreenAnarchy called it “pure, uncut Midnighter fodder,” and “absolutely frantic, manic, nonsensical and off the wall!” I think that just about sums it up tbf.

Screambox original film PussyCake will stream exclusively on Screambox on August 30th and will also be available on VOD platforms via Cinedigm.

Go watch it! Just finish you Cream of Mushroom Cup a Soup first eh 😉

Enjoy PussyCake and more unique horror content with a 30-day free trial of Screambox, available on iOS, Android, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Comcast, and Screambox.com.