I Was a Teenage Serial Killer
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''I Was a Teenage Serial Killer'' is an underground
no budget film A no-budget film is a film made with very little or no money. Actors and technicians are often employed in these films without remuneration. A no-budget film is typically made at the beginning of a filmmaker's career, with the intention of either e ...
written and directed by independent filmmaker
Sarah Jacobson Sarah Jacobson (August 25, 1971 – February 13, 2004) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. Early life Jacobson was born in Connecticut, moved to New Jersey in 1975, then to Edina, Minnesota in 1982. She graduated with ho ...
. It is a short black-and-white film of a 19-year-old girl who is sick of sexist men and kills them. It was Jacobson's first major film and it was released through her own company, Station Wagon Productions. She made the film under the guidance of her teacher,
George Kuchar George Kuchar (August 31, 1942 – September 6, 2011) was an American underground film director and video artist, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic. Early life and career Kuchar trained as a commercial artist at the School of Industrial Art, now k ...
. The film features songs by the early riot grrrl band
Heavens to Betsy Heavens to Betsy was an American punk band formed in Olympia, Washington in 1991 with vocalist and guitarist Corin Tucker and drummer Tracy Sawyer. The duo were part of the DIY riot grrrl, punk rock underground, and were Tucker's first band be ...
.
Ed Halter Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence. Criticism His writing has been featured in ''Artforum'', '' The ...
, writing in the ''
Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...
'', considered it "a key film of that decade's angrily subversive underground cinema."


Plot

The film opens with footage of a woman, Mary (Kristin Calabrese), caressing a blood-soaked corpse (Phil Calabrese) in a junkyard while a radio announcer (Chris Stoehr) talks about a man being a victim of homicide. Voice over reveals that Mary shot the man after he came on to her. The woman than drives to meet with her brother (Bob Hendershot) who begins heavily drinking and lecturing her on her dating habits, suggesting that she find a man to have children with. Suddenly, he starts violently coughing, and dies. It's then revealed that Mary has laced his drink with mouse poison. After leaving, Mary meets a man (Zach Kadish) who quickly takes her home to have sex. However, he attempts to remove his condom mid-coitus, causing her to fly into a rage and strangle him to death. In an alleyway, Mary sees a man (Alan Pierson) with his partner (Kathie Smith) spray-paint a heart on the wall. After the man begins catcalling Mary, she pushes him into the road and he is run over. While walking away from the scene, Mary hears a man screaming. Following the screams, Mary finds a fellow serial killer, Henry (Gorey), murdering a man (Steven Nereo), and assists him. Henry explains that he only kills straight men as a way of getting back at a patriarchal society. Together, he and Mary go on a killing spree together. However, after Henry brings home a woman (Dianne McGeachy) to kill, Mary instead kills him and releases the girl. Mary meets a homeless man (Scott Garver). She confesses to him that she's killed 19 men, and opens up about her father sexually abusing her as a child. When the man suggests that the abuse may have been her fault due to her physical attractiveness, she holds a broken bottle to his throat and rants about the men in her life who have never taken her story seriously. In the end, she decides not to kill him, deciding that she can express more power by telling her story regardless of how ignorant men may attempt to invalidate her or keep her quiet.


Cast

Please note that some members of the cast are listed as mononyms. * Kristin Calabrese as Mary, The Teenage Serial Killer * Phil Calabrese as First Victim / Guy Tied to the Refrigerator * Steven Nereo as First Victim's Voice / Henry's Boy Victim * Chris Stoeher as Radio Announcer * Bob Hendershot as Brother * James Brown as Brother's Voice * Zach Kadish as Sex Partner * Sarah Rothstein as Little Girl with Chalk * Kathie Smith as Girl in Love * Alan Pierson as Boy with Spray Pain * Ed as Guy on the Street * Gorey as Henry, The Serial Killer Boyfriend * Dianne McGeachy as Henry's Girl Victim * Scott Garvey as Street Bum * Jeff Stein as Asshole Drug Dealer


Release

A Blu-ray and DVD compilation featuring Jacobson's 1996 film ''
Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore ''Mary Jane's Not a Virgin Anymore'' is an independent film written, directed, and produced by the self-anointed "Queen of Underground Film", Sarah Jacobson. It's a film about a teenage girl in the Twin Cities Area named Mary Jane who is curious ...
'' and several of her short films and music videos was released by the American Genre Film Archive on September 17, 2019.


References


External links

*{{IMDb title, id=tt0158666 1993 films 1993 short films American black-and-white films American independent films 1990s feminist films American short films 1990s serial killer films 1993 independent films 1990s English-language films 1990s American films