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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay
@willowcatelyn.bsky.social
12K followers 690 following 4.3K posts
Film Critic (Film Comment, Reverse Shot, Polygon etc). GALECA. Co-Author of CORPSES, FOOLS AND MONSTERS: THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF TRANSNESS IN CINEMA
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · Oct 17
Every time there's a Twitter purge, I share the link to my book. I co-authored "Corpses, Fools and Monsters" and it is about transness in cinema. People seem to like it!

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/725695...
Corpses, Fools and Monsters by Willow Maclay, Caden Gardner: 9781914420580 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
A radical history of transness in cinema, and an exploration of the political possibilities of its future. In the history of cinema, trans people are usually murdered, made into a joke, or viewed as ...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12h
FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (Terence Fisher, 1967)

Two things which are obvious, and true
*Every movie in which a character experiences a transformation is trans
*Every Frankenstein movie is trans
a still from Frankenstein Created Woman
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Reposted by Willow Catelyn Maclay
ravineangel.bsky.social
aoife josie clements @ravineangel.bsky.social · 12h
preorder PERSONA now, either through the link below or your local bookseller. guaranteed to ruin your life and drain what little joy remains from your frail body.
littlepuss.net
LittlePuss Press @littlepuss.net · 12h
NEW 📗!

PERSONA by Aoife Josie Clements (@ravineangel.bsky.social)

In which a trans woman discovers porn of herself she has no memory of making, only to find herself led to an unimaginably deeper evil

"The year's great work of literary horror."
—Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable.bsky.social)
PERSONA by Aoife Josie Clements — Debut trans horror — LittlePuss Press
"The best book I've read in years." —Gretchen Felker-Martin
www.littlepuss.net
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12h
I'm not really a gamer, but these have ruled. Awesome work.
1 1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 12h
Wishing a happy 101st Birthday to Ed Wood. Ghosts, transvestites, Bela Lugosi as God, what a strange, fascinating picture he gave us. Other than David Lynch, no other Hollywood-adjacent director had a better grasp on the surreal spaces underneath movies--even if Ed maybe only found them by accident.
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 13h
Tilbury is a wild movie
1 1
Reposted by Willow Catelyn Maclay
criterionchannl.bsky.social
Criterion Channel @criterionchannl.bsky.social · 14h
May, from the mind of @luckymckee.bsky.social it's available now on the Criterion Channel as part of the 2000s horror collection.
1 7 14
Reposted by Willow Catelyn Maclay
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 2d
I wrote about MAY for my horror column. This movie was a favorite of mine when I was a teenager, and I wrote about why and how it spoke to me then, and how my relationship to the film has evolved in the time since.

www.patreon.com/posts/monste...
a still image from Lucky McKee's "May" of Angela Bettis in a near close-up as the titular character. She has her thumb in her mouth. She is in a veterinary clinic and the details of the room are out of focus. Ginger Snaps and May were two of my favorite movies when I was fourteen years old. They helped me deal with with the two dominant feelings of my adolescence: gender dysphoria and loneliness. Those two feelings tend to intertwine for young trans people. In my own experience, they did so ruthlessly. My dysphoria negatively impacted my life to such a degree that I was home-schooled from the age of fifteen or sixteen (I genuinely can’t remember), put on a heavy anti-depressant and had to routinely see a childhood psychologist to figure out what was wrong with me (it was dysphoria, but I wasn’t in a safe situation to bring it up). Being taken out of the public school system made it much more difficult to create lasting friendships, which exacerbated my loneliness and inability to relate to others. Homeschooling me was a decision that was made without my consent, and it hampered my skills of socialization, and the friends that I did have in middle school eventually stopped seeing me. I’ve gotten better at being a person, and forging relationships with people since transitioning, but I have still retained some of those bad habits and coping mechanisms that I instinctively learned when I was a teenager. One of those coping mechanisms was cinephilia. I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to, but I had movies. It worked for me then, but now I can look back on it and realize that it was a pretty sad state of affairs. I’m still trying to find the balance between living my life, and watching movies. Lucky McKee’s May was one of those films that I luxuriated in. Angela Bettis’s strange, anti-social veterinarian technician, who wanted nothing more than to have a boyfriend, and friends to call her own, was disarmingly familiar. I treated watching it like soaking in a warm bath. Revisiting it this week, felt odd, like coming back to an old habit better left in the rear-view, but I still liked the taste. May begins with a brief prologue that shows the start of her difficulty socializing with her peers. The film takes viewers all the way back to elementary school, and May, with very long blonde hair, is wearing an eye-patch to obscure her lazy eye. Her mother—a cosmopolitan type—implores her to cover the eyepatch with her hair so her classmates will treat her equally. She ignores this advice until a young boy approaches her and innocently asks if she is a pirate. She shakes her head no. The bell rings. And she drapes her hair over her eyepatch. May’s mother keeps a prized doll locked in a glass case, and the doll itself is exquisitely Gothic, with a red gown, raven’s hair, and pale features. May fixated on this lovely creature, and substituted her need for friends with a budding relationship to this plastic creation. We never see May converse with her mother, but she gravitates to the doll in her worst moments. The film never shows the doll speaking, but May can hear her, nagging her insecurities, bringing her inner turmoil to her teeming, embodied psychosis. This is ostensibly a slasher film wearing the skin of a Frankenstein-riff, as May kills acquaintances of hers, severing her favorite body parts, and building a best friend of her own. But because the film is so careful, and precise about showing viewers the integrity of May’s inner-life, it is in actuality the rare horror film to genuinely grapple with the horrible shape of catastrophic loneliness.
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 14h
We are ready for our close-ups
1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
I am seeing SUNSET BOULEVARD with some close friends at the cinema tomorrow, and I think that's unbelievably cool.
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Reposted by Willow Catelyn Maclay
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
My friend's cat is really sick. Moose is literally an angel, and if you could spare anything or share this around that would be wonderful. Thank you. 💙

www.gofundme.com/f/bn2nc-help...
Donate to Help Moose Get Better, organized by Emily Dyer
Hi, I’m creating this today for my beautiful precious angel cat, Moose. She started presenting se… Emily Dyer needs your support for Help Moose Get Better
www.gofundme.com
27 47
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
Alright, that settles the tie-breaker. This month I'll be covering PRINCE OF DARKNESS and THE FOG.

Thanks everyone.
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
We have a tie for my monthly reader's choice poll between THE THING and THE FOG.

We're going to break that tie here. For the next hour, please reply with either THE THING or THE FOG, and I'll tally the replies and crown a winner. I'll write about the winner of this tie-breaker this month.
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
Thank you. It's looking like it's going to be The Fog.
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
Fog squad is out here
2 5
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
We have a tie for my monthly reader's choice poll between THE THING and THE FOG.

We're going to break that tie here. For the next hour, please reply with either THE THING or THE FOG, and I'll tally the replies and crown a winner. I'll write about the winner of this tie-breaker this month.
35 1 14
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
My friend's cat is really sick. Moose is literally an angel, and if you could spare anything or share this around that would be wonderful. Thank you. 💙

www.gofundme.com/f/bn2nc-help...
Donate to Help Moose Get Better, organized by Emily Dyer
Hi, I’m creating this today for my beautiful precious angel cat, Moose. She started presenting se… Emily Dyer needs your support for Help Moose Get Better
www.gofundme.com
27 47
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
Love STARMAN
1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
💙💙💙
1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
It seems my people crave an apocalypse of bugs and haunted Cocteau mirrors. If that is one of the winners then I can't wait to write about it.
1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 1d
Last chance to vote in my reader's choice poll. Some surprising results here if things stand.
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 6d
We are going to be looking at John Carpenter this month on my patreon. My reader's choice poll is now up.

www.patreon.com/posts/140445... (no paywall)
a still from John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN of Laurie Strode and Michael Myers
2 2
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 2d
I wrote about MAY for my horror column. This movie was a favorite of mine when I was a teenager, and I wrote about why and how it spoke to me then, and how my relationship to the film has evolved in the time since.

www.patreon.com/posts/monste...
a still image from Lucky McKee's "May" of Angela Bettis in a near close-up as the titular character. She has her thumb in her mouth. She is in a veterinary clinic and the details of the room are out of focus. Ginger Snaps and May were two of my favorite movies when I was fourteen years old. They helped me deal with with the two dominant feelings of my adolescence: gender dysphoria and loneliness. Those two feelings tend to intertwine for young trans people. In my own experience, they did so ruthlessly. My dysphoria negatively impacted my life to such a degree that I was home-schooled from the age of fifteen or sixteen (I genuinely can’t remember), put on a heavy anti-depressant and had to routinely see a childhood psychologist to figure out what was wrong with me (it was dysphoria, but I wasn’t in a safe situation to bring it up). Being taken out of the public school system made it much more difficult to create lasting friendships, which exacerbated my loneliness and inability to relate to others. Homeschooling me was a decision that was made without my consent, and it hampered my skills of socialization, and the friends that I did have in middle school eventually stopped seeing me. I’ve gotten better at being a person, and forging relationships with people since transitioning, but I have still retained some of those bad habits and coping mechanisms that I instinctively learned when I was a teenager. One of those coping mechanisms was cinephilia. I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to, but I had movies. It worked for me then, but now I can look back on it and realize that it was a pretty sad state of affairs. I’m still trying to find the balance between living my life, and watching movies. Lucky McKee’s May was one of those films that I luxuriated in. Angela Bettis’s strange, anti-social veterinarian technician, who wanted nothing more than to have a boyfriend, and friends to call her own, was disarmingly familiar. I treated watching it like soaking in a warm bath. Revisiting it this week, felt odd, like coming back to an old habit better left in the rear-view, but I still liked the taste. May begins with a brief prologue that shows the start of her difficulty socializing with her peers. The film takes viewers all the way back to elementary school, and May, with very long blonde hair, is wearing an eye-patch to obscure her lazy eye. Her mother—a cosmopolitan type—implores her to cover the eyepatch with her hair so her classmates will treat her equally. She ignores this advice until a young boy approaches her and innocently asks if she is a pirate. She shakes her head no. The bell rings. And she drapes her hair over her eyepatch. May’s mother keeps a prized doll locked in a glass case, and the doll itself is exquisitely Gothic, with a red gown, raven’s hair, and pale features. May fixated on this lovely creature, and substituted her need for friends with a budding relationship to this plastic creation. We never see May converse with her mother, but she gravitates to the doll in her worst moments. The film never shows the doll speaking, but May can hear her, nagging her insecurities, bringing her inner turmoil to her teeming, embodied psychosis. This is ostensibly a slasher film wearing the skin of a Frankenstein-riff, as May kills acquaintances of hers, severing her favorite body parts, and building a best friend of her own. But because the film is so careful, and precise about showing viewers the integrity of May’s inner-life, it is in actuality the rare horror film to genuinely grapple with the horrible shape of catastrophic loneliness.
10 33
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 3d
fuck yeah! I'm glad they loved it!
1
willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 3d
I love to see Vladdy hit home runs against the Yankees. I love it so much. It rules.
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 3d
I'm revisiting an old favorite tomorrow for my horror column with a lightly personal essay on MAY, which is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 3d
New Yorkers, you will definitely, definitely, definitely want to make time for these movies. They don't come around often, if ever, and Monika Treut is a great subversive director who is still waiting to be discovered by the queer cinephile world at large.
muscledistribution.bsky.social
Muscle Distribution @muscledistribution.bsky.social · 10d
Here’s our new trailer for FEMALE MISBEHAVIOR: THE FILMS OF MONIKA TREUT, which opens in New York at @anthologyfilmarchives on October 11th before expanding to other cities over the coming months.

More info:
www.anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screeni...
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willowcatelyn.bsky.social
Willow Catelyn Maclay @willowcatelyn.bsky.social · 3d
Yessss! It would be absolutely incredible on a wine movie club outing. Just totally perfect vibes for our group
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