Mother of otherness, eat me.
November 5, 2022 8:29 PM   Subscribe

Keen for some inspiration for next year's Halloween costume? Consider Red, a 2017 short film by artist Del Kathryn Barton with Cate Blanchett as a redback spider who orgasms then eats her mate. Of the aggressive score by Tom Schutzinger, Barton says, "it really comes at you and slaps you around, and the film really needs that.” Yes, yes it does.

Note: the film features real close-up footage of the small redback male and the voluminous female, including mating. It does not include footage of the strategy used by some male redbacks to “somersault” during copulation, twisting their abdomens on to the fangs of their mates in an “adaptive male strategy of self-sacrifice” that, if they were eaten, increased their chances of paternity.
posted by Thella (9 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
Next Halloween, which short film character would you dress as.
Cate Blanchett!

Seriously, watch this film.
posted by clavdivs at 8:38 PM on November 5, 2022


ok so what if a black widow movie but instead of superheroes it was
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:30 PM on November 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


sure!
posted by clavdivs at 9:37 PM on November 5, 2022


Yeah, I remember when all the cool people were dropping acid in the 60's....
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:58 PM on November 5, 2022


Well, it left me kinda dazed, but it was certainly worth the 15 minutes.
posted by Harald74 at 11:11 PM on November 5, 2022


The father dies then is there later. I’m trying to be open minded, but that part confused me.
posted by waving at 7:00 AM on November 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think the male was a figment of the daughter's imagination, and looking for the (any) male ended up being caught by the female.

Ever notice the way that, when an egg sac full of baby spiders hatches, they scatter quite rapidly? They do that instinctively because if the mother is still around she will not differentiate between her own young and any other small creeplings she can catch. She's usually the only dangerous thing in the vicinity to them when they are born.
posted by Jane the Brown at 9:14 AM on November 6, 2022 [2 favorites]


but that part confused me Yeah, I can't work out how she managed to get that dinner jacket back on after she'd cut it to bits.
posted by glasseyes at 2:09 PM on November 6, 2022


She mended it with silk thread, of course!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:29 PM on November 6, 2022


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