Monday, April 13th, 2026
Sacrilegious Cinema: Menagerie of Madness harkens back to one of its most adored motifs in the form of female rage, churning out a daring dyad of controversy, underscoring the woes of womanhood through the lens of paranoia, isolation, division, sexuality and patriarchy in a descent into madness with the rejection of such traditional roles thrust upon the territory.
At 8PM, we travel to West Berlin at the height of the Cold War, and are introduced to Mark, who has just returned home from a mission to discover his wife, Anna, demands a divorce, as she continues to exhibit increasingly odd behavior, inevitably twisting their world into a hallucinatory hellscape, dissecting the anatomy of heartbreak and a yearning liberation from weight of the orthodox roles projected onto womanhood.
Andrzej Żuławski’s contentious POSSESSION (1981) deals in duality, fashioning doppelgängers of idealized selves, paralleling both the separation of lovers but also a fractured nation with the binary Berlin and divorcees at the forefront of the allegory, mirroring one another thematically into the visage expected of the parties.
Rife with visceral imagery earning its gnarly reputation and subsequent banning in multiple countries, Possession heightens hysteria in its unruly depiction of anguish, grieving such that is not quite dead, but lost. This cult classic blends body horror with an onslaught upon the psychological, summoning an evil so vile from a stir of violence that it warrants physical manifestation. Isabelle Adjani plays into the ‘monstrous feminine’ in her bouts of psychosis triggered by trauma in an intense performance leading to a Cannes Best Actress award. Possession investigates ownership in both the oppressive grip on the splintered country as well as the intoxicating dysfunctional relationship, dismantling the nuclear family in favor of the unorthodox, cleaving Anna and her supposed submissive and flawless incarnation (in contrast with her berserk behavior) into Madonna-Whore counterparts, birthing a materialization of deep-seated resentment into their bleak lives, analyzing a warped maternity. Playing with colors, Possession sets a depressive tone in its desolate landscape of blues and greys, demonstrating the cold detachment between the couple and the country as a whole- a desensitization enacting a push and pull of deadly attraction displaying opposing ideologies and dichotomy through its elements, issuing a cynical vantage point of a world in disarray ushering in self-destruction under a political, feminist and religious lens.
Then, at 10PM, we meet timid beautician Carol Ledoux, a Belgian immigrant living in London with her older sister, Helen— but when Carol is left alone in their apartment while Helen is on holiday, the cracks in Carol’s psyche begin to rise to the surface, culminating in a cornucopia of delusions and dread. REPULSION (1965)– the first of director Roman Polanski’s famed ‘Apartment Trilogy’ (followed by Rosemary’s Baby and The Tenant) paints a portrait of a schizophrenic woman suffering from severe androphobia stemming from formative abuse and a stunted sexuality, highlighting the patriarchal insertion into the lives of women with or without consent.
Enhanced by an unnerving depiction by Catherine Deneuve, Repulsion displays the corruption of innocence, showcasing symbolism in the shape of a rabbit- a generally docile creature ravaged by the wiles of nature and viciously preyed upon- not unlike our protagonist bombarded by unwanted advances by men, taking advantage of her demure disposition for their plunder. Moreover, Repulsion explores learned trauma responses in relation to repression, exploring the dangers of isolation and anxieties- in a realm where the mind punishes the body’s impulses. Saturated in symbolism bringing to surface Carol’s aversion at odds with a growing curiosity, the apartment is inundated by phallic iconography haunting her delusions, through bouts of dissociation and otherness, as Carol has the makings of a pariah in a society dictating what is ladylike despite her rebellion against accepting such preordained roles- festering a delirium deep within her troubled mind, opting for the company of women to the danger of male presence. Repulsion’s double imagery basked in black and white provides a case study into a despairing soul with frenzied compulsions left to fend for her own devices in a nightmarish realm constructed by untreated mental illness and fed by isolation and fear of outsiders, intruding in the confines of her private hell.
Prepare for a wild ride with unbridled fury and experience the English-language debut within the catalogue of both Polish directors (with it being Żuławski’s only) specializing in psychological horrors unlike audiences have bear witness to before- at Hot Wax Coffee Shop in Ybor City.
FREE popcorn included with a mandatory purchase- no cover charge with a 1 drink (or snack) minimum from the bar. (Movie nights offer psychological insight accompanied by behind the scenes information and observations by your horror hostess).