Bigfoot Gets a Darkly Funny Twist in Patricia Wants to Cuddle, Directed by Sophia Takal
Ah, finally. Patricia Wants to Cuddle, a new horror-comedy flick announced in the last few days, will be an entry in a regrettably neglected subgenre of horror: the Bigfoot horror film. Certainly, there’s something inherently eerie (not to mention physically threatening) about a hulking, humanoid ape that may or may not be lurking out there in the dark forest, but it’s hard to think of any prominent film that has mined this concept for chills and thrills. Now, while nothing can yet be said about its execution, the premise of Patricia Wants to Cuddle does promise a very creative and thought-provoking take on the creepy old legend.
Bigfoot Horror by Way of Reality-TV Romance
Patricia Wants to Cuddle, which is currently under development, will be an adaptation of a 2022 comedy-horror novel by Samantha Leigh Allen. The novel centers around four women who are contestants on a reality dating series, which is being filmed on an isolated island in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve all joined “The Catch,” as it’s called, for diverse reasons, but they’re all going to get much more than they bargained for thanks to the titular Patricia – the creature who inhabits the island’s forest.
This project’s potential for mordant humor (as opposed to the unintentional laughs promised by, say, Bigfoot: Primal Fear) is obvious, but Patricia Wants to Cuddle is also aiming to be an allegory of both reality-TV culture and queer ostracism. Allen, who is trans, has written extensively in non-fiction about queer topics and won a GLAAD Media Award in 2018 for her Splinter article “Why Bisexual Men Are Still Fighting to Convince Us They Exist.”
A Director with a Strong Social-Justice Pedigree
The director of the planned film adaptation is Sophia Takal, whose directorial credits include the much-acclaimed 2016 thriller Always Shine and the 2019 horror remake Black Christmas (a terrible film, though it may be fairer to fault its rushed production than its filmmaker). Both of these movies were steeped in commentary regarding systemic misogyny.
Takal has professed to being drawn to Patricia Wants to Cuddle because of its exploration of authentic self-identity: “‘Patricia Wants to Cuddle’ offers a unique opportunity to explore the tension between our civilized personas and our wilder, more authentic selves through a horror lens.” Allen has credited Takal, Takal’s co-writer Lawrence Michael Levine, and the film’s producers at Votiv Films with understanding her novel’s essential qualities “without being afraid to improve on the foundation.”
Takal’s comment calls attention to a startling, seldom-explored theme: a connection between queerness and the state of nature. Only by entering our most primitive state, she seems to be saying, can we evaluate the truths of who we are, unfiltered through society’s prejudices. The use of an atavistic setting as a launchpad for a decidedly non-atavistic exploration of human identity makes Patricia Wants to Cuddle a standout among forthcoming horror-film projects.
