The Miracle of Life

This is the most insane film ever created plain and simple... there is no functional or objective way to review this film. The closest thing i can compare it to is being on Payote...

I'm not sure what to say honestly I'm rarely at a loss for words... but I'm at a loss for words...

The Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta (AKA The Miracle of Life) is proof that I will watch absolutely anything. It's definitely one of the weirdest movies to be released by Troma, and that's saying something.

Starting as it means to go on (in full-on bonkers mode), the film opens with a female body builder Marianne (played a man, Pascal Maetens) giving birth in the gym. For some reason I can't quite fathom, the baby is put in a plastic bag and discarded, and the placenta is presented to the proud mother, who promptly holds the fleshy protein sac to her breast for feeding. So far, so freaky.

Years pass, and the placenta, named Luke, attends school, but finds it hard to fit in with his peers. As a teenager, he develops an interest in the opposite sex, falling for classmate Rihanna (Sofie Hoflack). When a date with the girl doesn't go as he had hoped, Marianne hires a prostitute, Angie (Celine Verbeeck), to satisfy her son's carnal urges (she strokes his umbilical cord), after which (again for reasons I cannot fathom) Luke takes a gun and goes on a killing spree.

Even more bizarre than the title suggests, The Thingy throws up one 'WTF?' moment after another, making it a genuine one-of-a-kind experience: Marianne only exercises one arm, the right bulging with muscles, the left comparatively skinny; in one scene, the fish on Marianne's wallpaper momentarily come to life and swim about; another freakish moment sees Marianne breastfeeding the pet dog; and there's a brief, trippy animated sequence that bears no relation to the rest of the film.

As far as the central character is concerned, Luke the Placenta is a rubbery blob with very little movement, a creation that makes Belial from Basket Case look like a marvel of special effects by comparison; however, one can't help but feel for the little guy, at least until he goes on his bloody rampage, shooting his mother and seven defenceless infants in a maternity ward. Naughty Luke!

The film closes with Luke confiding in his priest godfather Julio (Karel Vingerhoets), who cooks his godson and eats him—a demented finish to a thoroughly messed up movie.

5/10—difficult to recommend to most movie fans but unmissable for those who deliberately seek out cinematic oddities.

I don't even know what to say. Would probably be a good movie to watch while your high. But overall, this movie is absolutely terrible.

I watched this whole movie and was just disappointed. It seemed kind of funny at first, but it just got boring. Nothing happens, lack of a soundtrack, and it's just overall horrible. Feels like it lasts 9 hours. I hate it. The only reason it even gets a 1 is because it was kind of funny in the beginning. I'll never get that time back.

I'm always searching the world to find underground flicks so by attending conventions I do come across those flicks. Let this be such one. It's made in Belgium and is out now but the problem is always promotion. There's another horror flick out in Belgium 'Welp' which do has a lot of promo going on due Halloween but back to The Miracle Of Life. It wasn't an easy flick to watch due a few reasons.

First of all, the promo at the convention did state Basket Case (1982). It's always dangerous to be compared with a classic and people who know me do know that Basket Case wasn't my thing. But at the promo I saw that indeed some 'thing' is living in the flick who did refer to the creature (brother) in Basket Case.

Once I plugged in the flick it was immediately clear that the only thing referring to Basket Case was the look of the placenta in this flick. But it also remind me of Brain Damage (1988). The first minute it was clear that this was going to be something strange and the score used did confirm it. Seeing a man being dressed as a girl being in a fitness surrounded by body builders having a baby, yes, you do read this, says enough. This is not a usual flick.

The baby is being thrown away and the placenta is given mother's milk! So it do lives. From here we do see it being baptist, falling in love, being visited by a hooker (the only nudity) and becoming sick in the mind and taking it's revenge. In fact, people do react in a strange way when they see the placenta and being teased at school it's getting hurt in many ways.

For such kind of flick it was filmed rather well and the editing was also above mediocre. And they sure knew their thing adding flair with colour grading and using the depth of focus. But I can understand that some will be turned away by the story and the characters throughout this flick.

If you do hurry and buy it in special edition you get a prop of the placenta. Don't believe to see the next Basket Case, it's between horror and art-flick (the use of animation...)

Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5