Sex with an extraterrestrial being leads to freedom from anxiety and depression in Addison Heimann’s Touch Me. It’s akin to 2016’s The Untamed but super gay and super stylish. Aliens have been a staple of horror and sci-fi since the dawn of storytelling. Unlike alien intrusion films of the 1950s, we’re not necessarily scared of what aliens could do to us anymore. We’re far more fearful of what could happen to humanity if aliens do not step in and save us. Heimann, who also wrote the script, explores the psychosexual power these otherworldly creatures could have in healing mental health for millennial-aged humans and liberating the generation that has been robbed of a normal existence since the late 1990s.
Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley) is wracked with anxiety and suffers from frequent panic attacks, stemming from childhood trauma. She lives with her rich gay BFF Craig (Jordan Gavaris), and after an unfortunate event, they end up homeless. Craig’s family has all but cut him off, and Joey struggles to find work. Joey’s ex-boyfriend Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci) steps back into her life and invites them to stay at his lavish mansion. The kicker here is that Brian is actually a sex-crazed being from another planet, with a mission to save Earth from itself. Or so he says.
The weekend getaway erupts into an enmeshment of bodies, a dalliance with death, and the very real possibility that what Brian has claimed has been nothing but lies. Joey and Craig’s friendship is tested, as they both ask the question: What is it that I want and need? Their infatuation with Brian comes to a head in the third act, leading to some bloody, gruesome moments that are among the best in horror this year. Could their very raw human desires be enough to sever the ties to outerspace? Maybe? Or Not? Who knows.
Pain and pleasure are two strands of the same vine. Touch Me touches upon what it means to be human, for better or worse, and how we can learn to balance the two halves within ourselves. Addison Heimann’s script is equal parts provocative and earnest. He roots the story in the very uncomfortable nature of being human and tackles big themes such as sex as a weapon, psychological manipulation of romantic relationships, and the desperation to be liberated from our own minds.
Touch Me erects this fantastical hypothetical (could aliens just want to have sex with us?) as a way to deal with a reality totally scorched by collective anxieties over war, political poison, and alt-right extremism. Through Heimann’s visual flair (reminiscent of Mitzi Peirone’s Braid or Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon), the story swells into a larger tale about humanity’s deterioration to the point that we just really need aliens to invade already. Seriously, can they?
Touch Me is out now on VOD.
sink. your. teeth.
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