Popcorn Frights 2024: ‘Sheryl’ tears down outrageous beauty standards

Beauty standards for women have been outrageous since the Golden Age of Hollywood when pin-up girls moved the goalposts and set unattainably high bars. Throughout the decades since, magazine covers, TV shows, and now social media present a distorted sense of self-worth through the lens of photoshopped poses and filters. With his new film Sheryl, writer/director Justin Best explores the pressures put upon women through a dark and twisted tale about one young woman Sheryl (Anthea Neri Best), and her journey through the sticky muck of society’s toxic norms.

Sheryl and her boyfriend Ted (Shaan Sharma) like to do murderous things together. When we meet them, they’re in the middle of a little get-together with Julie (Nicole Santiago) and Mike (Reuben Uy), also serial killers, who have two people tied to chairs. Things don’t exactly go as planned – and the bloody gathering catches the attention of law enforcement. With Detective Vasquez (Jade Ramirez) and Detective David Reyes (Christopher Cendana) hot on the trail, it’s only a matter of time before the culprits are apprehended.

In the aftermath of the slip-up, Ted dumps Sheryl for not being “hot enough,” thus beginning the film’s thesis about beauty in the modern world. During her work at an online beauty magazine, Sheryl proposes a new project around sculpting the perfect face and plans to collect a nose, lips, and other facial features. Yes, she goes on her own murder spree and targets major celebrities and other social media finds to stitch together their body parts into a hideous Leatherface patchwork. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre reference doesn’t stop there – Sheryl even wields an actual chainsaw in the film’s epic, body-mutilating climax.

Neri Best delivers an altogether charming and at times, frightening lead performance. She brings a particular weight to the material that feels authentic to the reality women are forced to swallow. On a daily basis, women must adhere to a strict benchmark to be fully accepted in society. Today, we, as a culture, are having more honest and open conversations about body image, but if you scroll through many comment sections, you’ll still find fatphobic remarks and other disgusting teardowns about women and other marginalized communities. The filmmaker understands the nuances and allows Sheryl to be a bullhorn about what it’s like to simply exist in the world – Neri Best delivers a monologue worthy of the Barbie movie in strength and sheer vulnerability.

Clocking in at just under 70 minutes, Sheryl makes for an easy, entertaining watch. Justin Best packs in the thrills, as Sheryl devolves into a knife-swiping maniac. Her character collapses underneath the weight of her cracked self-image in much the same way Jillian does in I Blame Society and Claire in The Stylist, both excellent choices for a double-feature night. With its slick-backed veneer, courtesy of DP Carlos Rosas, and banging soundtrack, Sheryl is what great independent filmmaking is all about.

Sheryl screened at this summer’s Popcorn Frights.

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