Bite hard when I tried to be nice
I know exactly what you wanted
Cut clean when I twist that knife
No one falls for the villainYes, I love being bitter
Chappell Roan, “Bitter”
‘Cause it makes me feel better
Now I’m sick in the head and I think it’s my fault
Back in 2022, far fewer people knew the name Chappell Roan than they do today. In fact, it seems like you can’t open your social media feeds or walk down the street without hearing the tones of her hits ‘Good Luck Babe’ or ‘Hot To Go’. But only a couple of years ago, Chappell was hardly a household name, and the artist – before the release of ‘The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess’ which made her one of the biggest pop acts in the world – was working on a project very outside the modern Chappell oeuvre.
2022’s horror short film Posies, written and directed by ‘non-denominational exorcist’ and prolific writer Rachel (R.H.) Stavis, is a body horror exploration of the transformation of humanity into monsters, at first psychologically and then manifesting itself physically. It follows a woman (Anna Diop) desperately trying to hide the changes in herself, and ultimately embracing monstrousness through honesty. The depiction of a woman digging flower petals out of her own open wounds in her skin is powerful, especially set against the background noise of political pundits expounding on ‘the de-evolution of society’. And, as political pundits do, chalking it up to the fault of women.
Stavis is no stranger to the world of fantasy and horror. She was the writer behind the Tomb Raider and Transformers: War for Cybertron video games. She also co-wrote “Something Monstrous”, a graphic novel collaboration with Steve Niles, the horror icon behind ‘30 Days of Night’. Stavis’s direction feels purposeful, setting each shot with almost animated-looking yellows, reds, and blues. It gives Posies a particularly composed aesthetic that poetically communicates the internal struggle against ugliness that we all experience from time to time. For the score, like a lot of Chappell’s early work, the music she composes is haunting and beautiful, matching perfectly with the tone of Posies. It’s centred around her 2018 single ‘Bitter’, but her ethereal vocals permeate each meticulously-layered scene of the short film. And unexpectedly, Chappell’s unmistakably pained vocal style pairs squirmingly well against the sound of tearing skin and snapping bones.
Posies is a project that packs a lot of intensity and emotion into a short 14-minute runtime. It uses Stavis’s meticulous direction in concert with Roan’s beautifully atmospheric score to craft a story about beauty and ugliness in opposition within the same skin. There aren’t too many hidden gems like this out there, but Posies is certainly one worth digging up.
Rachel Stavis’s Posies will be re-released on the ALTER streaming platform on October 10, 2024 , coinciding with the conclusion of Chappell Roan’s summer tour and kicking off ALTER’s Women’s History Month. You can check out ALTER here.
