Booger is a coming-to-terms-with-grief drama, wrapped in elements of dark humour, body-horror, and indie artiness. The New York City-set film focuses on twenty-something Anna, whose close friend/ apartment mate has recently passed. She gets obsessed with finding ‘Booger’, the stray cat the pair had, who has recently disappeared. Here from Arrow Video UK is a Blu-ray release of the 2023 film, featuring a few extras.

Booger was written and directed by Texas-born born now New York-based Mary Dauterman. Booger is her first feature, after helming six shorts and one TV episode between 2018 and the present day.

The film runs at the one hour and eighteen minute mark, and really, first & foremost, it’s dealing with grief/ death indie drama- yes, there are elements of body horror, humour, and artiness present- but these are not the key focus. so I’d say that if you have no interest in a largely drama-focused- this won’t be for you.

The film focuses on stringy blond/ slightly quirky officer worker Anna (Grace Glowicki)- her best friend/ apartment mate, Izzy (Sofia Dobrushin) has recently passed away. She is understandably upset, so as a way to try and cope, she goes looking for the black stray cat the pair had, who bit her on her hand, then ran off.

The film has a small central cast of three people- taking in Anna, Izzy( in mobile phone memory form), and trying to help Anna as much as he can, black American boyfriend Max(Garrick Bernard). Though we do get a few neighbours/ people she meets added into this- most notably, been rather eccentric pet shop owner, Ellen, played by Heather Matarazzo (Welcome To The DollHouse, Hostel: Part 2).

The film starts shifting between formally filmed & mobile phone filmed footage- but as it progresses, we lock down into more traditional film, which at points does become quite arty.  The body horror element comes from the fact that Anna is seemingly slowly but surely morphing into a cat- first the cat bite won't heal, then the bite starts sprouting black, and as we progress, she gets more cat-like in her behaviour, along with some other body changes too.

The cast is fine- Glowicki does well as our lead, balancing well emotional breakdowns, with her more troubling cat issues. And it’s always great to see Ms Matarazzo- even in a small cameo.

The blending of grief-focused drama and body horror is original and distinctive. And I’d say largely, Booger is a decent enough first feature film- with the only real issues been a few pacing issues, and rather over use of a certain song- Rupert Holmes – Escape( 1980), as it’s Izzy favourite song- and snippets appear on like ten or so occasions.

Extras-wise wise on the disc, we get two things- A Different Breed of Female Feline (9.12), this is a visual essay from critic Kat Hughes.  She starts off by talking about how traditionally, cats are associated with girls/ women in film, and dogs have been associated with boys/men.  She talks about what links women to cats, and how Booger has a different take on the normally more sexualized cinematic link between the two. She discusses the other two cat women in the film, and a few other things.  Curiosity Kills: A History of the Cat and Death (12.46)- a video essay by writer Alexandra West. She talks about how cats have been linked with human history, both positively and negatively. She also talks about how Booger how plays into this link.  Both of these featurettes are well worth a watch. The disc is finished off with a trailer and image gallery.

The finished release comes with an illustrated booklet featuring writing by Becky Darke and Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. And a reversible sleeve featuring newly commissioned and previously unreleased artwork by Rose Whittaker and Aleksandra Waliszewska.

It’s great to see Arrow picking up/ releasing Booger, because it most certainly is a creative/ original blend of coming-to-terms-with-grief drama, dark comedy, and body horror. The release is topped off with a few worthy extras.