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Possibly in Michigan

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Possibly in Michigan
Directed byCecelia Condit
Written byCecelia Condit
StarringBill Blume
Jill Sands
Karen Skladany
Edited byDavid Narosny
Music byKaren Skladany
Running time
12 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Possibly in Michigan is a 1983 American shot-on-video[1] musical horror short film written and directed by Cecelia Condit, with music by Karen Skladany, who starred in the film as Janice. The film follows two women looking for perfumes in a department store being stalked by a cannibalistic murderer wearing a mask.

Condit considers it to be part of the "Jill Sands trilogy", which refers to three of her films which star the actress Jill Sands: Beneath the Skin, Possibly in Michigan, and Not a Jealous Bone.[2] The shopping mall and department store segments were shot at Beachwood Place in Beachwood, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.[3]

Plot

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Two women, Sharon and Janice, are shopping at an empty department store for perfume, followed by man in a mask, mouth agape, wearing a black suit. Both women are said to have a reputation for attracting violent men and making the violence seem to be the man's idea. Arthur, the man following them, is introduced as sharing the same inclinations as Sharon and Janice.

While shopping, Janice (in a sing-song voice) said that a perfume smells like her mother's "crazy" sister Kate, who once put her wet poodle in a microwave, thinking it was a dryer, killing both herself and the dog in a fiery explosion.

Janice notices Arthur, and both women flee the department store. Sharon and Janice part ways after driving home, as Arthur follows them and stands outside Sharon's house, waiting for Janice to leave. A voiceover explains that Arthur has worn so many masks he has forgotten who he is. He approaches the front door and removes his mask, appearing as a normal man under it, and rings the doorbell.

Sharon, asleep, wakes up and goes to answer the door. When she sees who it is, she immediately drops to the ground and calls Janice. Janice arrives and aims a pistol at Arthur, shooting him several times only for him to continue inching closer. Arthur picks up a stone from Sharon's yard, revealing a rotting face beneath it, and shatters the bedroom window and breaks in. Janice escapes, shooting at various masked figures. As Sharon describes Arthur's appearance to Janice on the phone, Arthur unexpectedly comes up behind Sharon and says "the better to eat you with, my dear," (referring to his teeth) in a distorted voice. Sharon turns around as Arthur kisses her.

Repeatedly pushing Sharon onto her bed, Arthur claims that she has two options: He will either eat her immediately or slowly dismember her, claiming it's for love. Janice shoots another masked figure and arrives at Sharon's front door. Arthur, now holding a knife, pins Sharon to her bed and begins choking her. Arthur tells her that he has done this to six other women. As Sharon agrees to be the seventh woman, Janice aims her pistol at Arthur and fatally shoots him. Sharon gets up and, while looking at Arthur's corpse, she touches her lips in disgust.

The women lay Arthur's body out atop spread newspapers and begin to dismember him, making soup from his body parts. Nude, the women eat his remaining limbs, feeding scraps to their dog. While smoking cigarettes, Janice notices another masked man outside the window. She signals to Sharon as the figure hides before Sharon can see. After eating, the women wrap Arthur’s bones in newspapers and throw them into a trash bag. After putting the bags on the curb, a garbage truck comes and collects the bags, destroying the evidence.

Cast

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  • Bill Blume as Arthur, the man stalking Sharon and Janice. He is later killed by the women after trying to kill Sharon.
  • Jill Sands as Sharon, Janice's best friend. She escapes from Arthur and cooks his body parts with Janice.
  • Karen Skladany as Janice, Sharon's best friend. She shoots Arthur and cooks his body with Sharon.

Reception and legacy

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The film received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.[4][5] The year the film was released, its final scene was shown on CBN and The 700 Club, where it was described as gay, anti-family, and anti-men.[6] A year later, the short film was read as lesbianism by the National Endowment for the Arts[7] and was shown at the Museum of Modern Art.[8][9]

The short film first gained notoriety on social media in 2015, and has gained popularity among Gen Z teens.[5][10]

Patricia Mellencamp[11] and Herman Rapaport have written about the short film.[12] Joanne Morreale called the film an example of a revenge fantasy for feminists.[13] Chris Straayer said the film was about male violence against women.[7]

References

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  1. ^ CECELIA CONDIT: EARLY VIDEO WORKS VHS - Lunchmeat
  2. ^ Women in Horror: Cecelia Condit - Morbidly Beautiful
  3. ^ "Where is Cecelia Condit's Possibly in Michigan filmed?". Reddit.com. 9 December 2020. Retrieved 2022-11-01.
  4. ^ Peirse, Alison (2020-09-17). Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-1-9788-0513-2.
  5. ^ a b Chiaverina, John (6 November 2019). "How This 71-Year-Old Video Art Pioneer Became a TikTok Star". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  6. ^ "The art of being a provocateur". Isthmus. 18 February 2010. Retrieved 15 September 2021.
  7. ^ a b Straayer, Chris (1996). Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-orientations in Film and Video. Columbia University Press. p. 291. ISBN 978-0-231-07979-2.
  8. ^ "Video: Recent Acquisitions". MoMA. The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2023-03-17.
  9. ^ "MoMA TO INAUGURATE NEW VIDEO GALLERY WITH EXHIBITION OF RECENT ACQUISITIONS" (PDF) (Press release). New York: The Museum of Modern Art. The Museum of Modern Art Department of Film. April 1984. Retrieved 2021-09-16.
  10. ^ Gat, Orit (26 July 2019). "How Cecelia Condit's Video Art Became a Viral Curse for Teens on TikTok". Frieze. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
  11. ^ Mellencamp, Patricia (1990-09-22). Indiscretions: Avant-Garde Film, Video, and Feminism. Indiana University Press. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-253-11599-7.
  12. ^ Rapaport, Herman (2018-07-05). Between the Sign and the Gaze. Cornell University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-1-5017-2959-1.
  13. ^ Morreale, Joanne (2002-12-01). Critiquing the Sitcom: A Reader. Syracuse University Press. p. 259. ISBN 978-0-8156-2983-2.
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