FANTASIA 2023: ‘Booger’ Is a Furry Take On Grief

Because cinema is one of the most powerful tools to explore grief, we’ve seen a plethora of movies, of many styles and genres, dealing with the theme throughout the years, but most definitely we’ve never seen one headlined by a furball coughing, wet canned food-obsessed woman. That has just changed at Fantasia Fest 2023, where director Mary Dauterman premiered her very unique take on grief in her film, Booger. 

Anna (Grace Glowicki) is going through a rough patch. She’s having trouble at work, her landlord won’t stop calling, and most sadly, her best friend Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin) just died. To top it off, Izzy’s cat, Booger, escaped home, not before giving her the parting gift of a nasty bite. Despite the efforts of her boyfriend (Garrick Bernard) and visits from Joyce (Marcia DeBonis), Izzy’s mother, Anna seems to be completely numb. She ignores everything and everyone because her only focus is finding her dead friend’s cat, a mission that gets increasingly complicated when she starts coughing hairballs, getting distracted by birds, and devouring cat food.

Although it’s joyful watching a cat enjoy his wet food, I think we can all agree that said food is quite disgusting, and Dauterman exploits just that to make the audience squirm but also to enhance the narrative. With numerous scenes of vomiting and a particularly memorable sequence involving cat food, Booger uses body horror to symbolize the pain her character is going through. Anna is somewhat somatizing her pain in the form of these squeamish episodes.

There’s some smart use of imagery by Dauterman. A festering wound in Anna’s hand, brought to life by a remarkable use of makeup, is used to symbolize her unwillingness to face her grief: instead of treating it, she uses a band-aid to cover the wound which becomes bigger and bigger as time goes by. Something similar happens with her search for Booger, a symbol of her friendship with Izzy: she becomes obsessed with it and refuses to let go which leads to her alienating everyone around her.

Throughout the film, we watch little videos saved on Izzy’s phone of her and Anna just enjoying life: doing karaoke, playing with Booger, and being all-around goofballs. These videos, watched obsessively by Anna, are not only hilarious and very authentic ―they truly feel like real videos shot by real friends― but they are key to the structure of the film because through them you can understand the significance of Anna’s loss.

Grace Glowicki delivers a great performance where she evokes the physicality of a cat without going too overboard with her movements; she could’ve easily missed the mark and fallen into cheesy territory but she achieves an ideal balance. Anna’s cold personality can be very unpleasant so Marcia DeBonis’ wonderful performance as Joyce is absolutely crucial to balance the film. Whenever she’s on screen there’s this wave of warmth and sadness that immediately strengthens the painful atmosphere everyone is enduring.

Not everything is tuna and catnip though. Booger is often reiterative in its elements, for instance, there’s an abundance of dry heaving scenes that get monotonous after a while. Some of the body horror scenes feel forced and you can feel that Dauterman is trying way too hard to make you squirm. Furthermore, there are numerous editing and sound mixing issues that take you out of the story and remind you that you are watching a feature debut.

Booger is far from perfect but it stands out because of its sheer creativity as well as Glowicki’s terrific commitment to the role. This is a black body horror-comedy that can be as crazy as a cat zoomie, but can also hit you right in the feels. Dauterman uses a unique premise to portray how unique a profound relationship can be and how its loss can sink you deep into a litter box. 

Booger had its world premiere at Fantasia Fest 2023.