UK, 2025
Review:JA Kerswell
A British slasher movie seen through the haze of drugs, explicit sex and revenge, BLOWIE—despite its familiar structure—is a unique, transgressive take on the subgenre. A small group of adult performers (played by real porn stars as variations of themselves) try to cover up an accidental death during a rubber-fetish scene gone wrong, but find themselves hunted by a masked killer in the form of a sex doll who haunts the night and sets out to punish them.
Gathered at a remote Welsh stately home to perform solo and group sex for their OnlyFans pages, Kali (Kali Sudhra) is the lone female and, as the de facto director, attempts to corral the ragtag group of gay adult performers, reminding them not to get any cum or lube on the soft furnishings. They have decided that Leander (again performing under his porn nom de plume) isn’t the right fit for the group. However, they agree to one last setup, in which he is encased in a blue rubber sheet and lies on the floor—with only his mouth exposed. When the others are distracted by a double-penetration scene, a bottle of lube falls over, spilling into Leander’s mouth. Unable to move or warn the others of his plight, he is left helpless. By the time they realise it, it is too late, and he has choked to death. Panicked, the group roll the body in the blue rubber sheet and sink it in a nearby lake on the estate.
A few days later, a young, Twinky-type performer (Clark Lewis) arrives expecting to find Leander there, but the group says they don’t know where he is. Clark, who had a fling with Leander and whom the group suspect was low-key stalking him, gets on with producing content for his OnlyFans page—including a scene in which he wears a sex doll mask with grotesquely enlarged lips. The others worry he will uncover what happened, and their fears are realised when he discovers a video of Leander’s death. As they try to work out what to do, a figure in a tight-fitting white onesie slinks through the cavernous house, wearing the sex doll mask and a blonde wig stolen from Kali whilst she performed an erotic scene with balloons. At first, this phantom unsuccessfully tries to smother a post-coital Gabriel Cross with a cushion. Suspecting that Clark is taking revenge for Leander’s death, the performers split up and go looking for him, only to be picked off one by one by the killer who has upped their game …
Despite the low budget (£35,000), the cast in BLOWIE are surprisingly convincing. By and large, porn stars might not be known for their thespian talents. However, the makers cleverly avoid this problem by having them perform essentially as themselves. Whilst no one will be troubling the Academy, this approach gives the movie a naturalistic, almost fly-on-the-wall ambience, as if real people are talking to each other and trying to figure out their predicament.
BLOWIE offers a good number of flashes of half-obscured hardcore action and plenty of full-frontal male nudity (this isn’t a movie for when Grandma is visiting), but it also has the wit to revel in the sheer mundanity and transient pleasure of porn production, as the group argue over whose turn it is to clean up after a scene or Kali rolls her eyes at having to pick up cigarette butts from the flower beds. Whilst the performers are portrayed as vacuous enough to continue producing content soon after the death, they are also largely likeable—with one character discussing his Dungeons and Dragons obsession and another giving thanks to trans icon Marsha P. Johnson and the Pope of Trash, John Waters. It certainly doesn’t appear to be making any kind of moral judgement—and, in fact, the makers and its stars are apparently revelling in the in-your-face sexuality. In a way, it has a punk rock attitude with cocks—lots and lots of cocks. This just happens to be a slasher movie with real porn stars (who don’t happen to give a fuck about your opinion of them). BLOWIE often has a discordant, almost dreamlike feel (think Jean Rollin doing gay porn). The soundtrack, peppered with experimental electronic dance noise and Queercore, adds to its edginess and attrition, and its episodic approach is perhaps a nod to the kind of content the performers make.
Arguably, however, the film gives too much time to the sexually charged vignettes and not enough to its horror elements, which are largely concentrated at the—for want of a better term—climax. This is a shame, as the location is perfect for a slasher movie and it moves seamlessly from the dreamlike to the nightmarish. It borrows elements from the classics (including someone hiding under a bed to avoid detection) and features a surprisingly effective chase sequence through the house’s dark halls—which shows that the makers certainly had the chops for a more suspenseful, horror-oriented take. The killer’s look is striking and creepy; a rail-thin wraith in an expressionless mask of erotic grotesquery, topped with a ratty blonde wig. Another effective touch is that, as they stalk, they gurgle as if still drowning in lube, while orgiastic moans throb low in the mix. The film teases that BLOWIE might be a supernatural tale of revenge from beyond the grave (a cum-soaked M.R. James tale, if you will) or rather a slasher whodunnit. I won’t spoil the ending, but the film’s last scene features a macabre, fetishistic image that is striking and perversely haunting.
Certainly not for everyone (and certainly not for the more prudish and closed-minded), BLOWIE has flashes of brilliance despite its limitations; a challenging agent provocateur in a sea of relative genre blandness. And, for that alone, it is worth seeking out.
BODY COUNT 4:
Female 0 / Male 4
BLOWIE (2025) Trailer
