Trepidation. I would say, when I first got the breakdown of the new indie thriller Heather, I was filled with trepidation. The movie was born from a meeting the writer/director had with a friend who was dating his former classmate who had transitioned. I’ll admit, there’s a film there. It feels like a drama. But, this director went the route of turning that into a horror. And then, I hit that trepidation wall where my thoughts went to using the transgender community as an object of fear. I think in this current political climate, there’s enough of that.
However, Heather is not as cut and dry as saying it’s transphobic, and calling it a day. I did sit on my screener for a minute, and only when happenstance brought me a similarly themed movie, which presented a different lens on the trans experience, and also lacked audio description did I feel like I could comment on Heather. I didn’t want to just take another indie film, and use it as another example of lack of audio description, and then talk about its failings of the trans community.
Now, despite having a trans actress in the role of Heather, I can’t say it’s pride manifested either.
The plot is simple. There’s a man, who at the start of the film is currently dating an older woman (sean Young), before an old friend gives him the details on a former classmate that was asking about him, and he thinks she could be an easy hookup. After that, we cut back and forth between a rather mundane first date, and a weird dominatrix setting where Heather is in control and knows an uncomfortable amount about the past, and how her date was a pretty severe bully in high school.
Now, a few spoilers,there is another guy who is helping Heather. i didn’t fully understand why, but he’s there. And he seems far more interested in Heather being trans, having taken photos of Heather having sex with the impending victim (Travis). Travis actually doesn’t seem to care as much as the guy on Team Heather. He’s more focused on getting out of the room and away from the crazies. For a comparison on how he could have reacted, watch another Sean Young film, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and you’ll see the kind of representation and reaction I was afraid of.
However, despite this odd turn of events, Heather is still a commanding force in the film. but, the backstory behind her transgenderness never actually includes any of the feelings and emotions a trans person actually has when they feel like they are in a body that isn’t theirs. I think the director might have mixed sexual orientation and gender identity a bit much, because Heather talks about having a crush on Travis back in school, but Travis was a bully who beat him so bad that his genitals stopped working. there’s a really cheesy line about having a broken dick, and Heather (before she reveals who she is) essentially tells Travis that the kid he beat up is dead. Well, in a way, because he’s now heather. So, no more David, but now Heather.
Heather never seemed to impress upon us, or Travis, that this was a choice she wanted to make, and instead it feels like this was the logical conclusion she drew from being beaten so bad her genitals were “broken”. That’s why I still have some slight reservation, because, I think of all the men out there who have had something happen to that region, either combat veterans, cancer survivors, or just other people who have been in similar accidents or situations. It’s not like every guy goes “Well, my dick doesn’t work, so I might as well be a woman now.” And that feels like what Heather’s story is.
But, I will give the film points for mostly avoiding any trans fear fire stoking, because Travis really doesn’t seem too affected by this revelation, while Heather’s friend clearly has issues. The lack of audio description didn’t help me in the third act, when the film starts to head more in the direction of Hard Candy, as well as the time jumps. Also, I truly don’t know conceptually where the friend came from. He was taking a video from somewhere, but the lack of description of the room makes it hard to imagine him hiding somewhere.
that being said, this indie thriller may not get everything right, but it also isn’t something else to stoke hate for the trans community as politicians spend more time trying to figure out which bathroom they can use than solving an actual problem. The transgender community is already a de facto boogeyman and a movie that leaned in on that would have gotten much more push back from me.
Heather isn’t perfect by any means, and certainly isn’t winning a pride award anytime soon, but it also feels like there’s something in there. I can’t come out and fully recommend it, because it doesn’t have audio description, but you could do worse. I’ve certainly done much worse this year, with films with much higher budgets, and films that had audio description.
Heather is destined for Tubi, where people may or may not discover it. It is technically hitting VOD on Nov 8th, but this has Tubi vibes. And you could also definitely do worse on Tubi.
I suppose this showed me that it isn’t as easy as writing off a film simply based on vibes gotten out of the concept to screenplay stage, and sometimes you do actually have to watch the full product to understand where a film lands on a given subject.
I’m abstaining from a grade due to the accessibility, and also the independent nature of the film. I’m not convinced this first time filmmaker even knows what audio description is.