MY CALL: Tapping into the hokey atomic horror of the 1960s, this low budget spectacle should delight fans of deliciously bad cinema. Because it affects many viewers’ enjoyment of even deliberately “bad” movies, I feel the need to disclaim that this movie’s budget is notably low. However, you also get a lot of [discounted] glorious blood and pus and we see a lot of the monster. So adjust your expectations accordingly. MORE MOVIES LIKE Cyst: For more bizarrely, funny and really gross horror, check out Society (1989), Ticks (1993), Planet Terror (2007), BioSlime (2010), Chillerama (2011), Greasy Strangler (2016) or The Seed (2021).
Enjoying the recent fetishization of pimple popping, we meet Nurse Patty (Eva Habermann; Troll’s World, Sky Sharks) and Dr. Guy (George Hardy; Troll 2, Troll’s World) as they squeeze, juice, and prod at a giant infected lump on a patient’s shoulder. The scene includes dousing the nurse in the face with a stream of projectile milky pus. Yeeeeuck!
This movie has plenty of blood, and even more ridiculous humor. The tone is goes from mildly disconnected from reality, to eventually cartoonish complete with mad scientist cackling during uncackleable situations. As much as silliness, this film thrives on shocking squirty grossness—and it gets juicy! If you wince at pimple popping videos, then maybe you shouldn’t even try to watch this.
In order to test a cyst removal machine for a patent committee, Dr. Guy “augments” a pimple on his assistant’s back into a giant festering growth. The demonstration goes horrible wrong, a recently disembodied skull grows limbs and leaps at someone like in Ticks (1993), and before you know it we have a giant cyst monster like the alien beast from TerrorVision (1986) or Invaders from Mars (1986). And while the cyst monster wanders Dr. Guy’s hallways, Guy and Patty have a wild throwdown fistfight. I didn’t expect such a non-horror highlight. Gene Jones (The Sacrament) also delivers some awkward pleasantry as a cyst-afflicted patient.
Tapping into the hokey atomic horror of the 1960s, director and co-writer Tyler Russell’s first horror film is a low budget spectacle for those who delight in the deliciously bad. Because it affects many viewers’ enjoyment of even deliberately “bad” movies, I feel the need to disclaim that this movie’s budget is notably low. There’s a lot of glorious blood and pus, yes, and you even see a lot of the monster. But the more you see the monster, the more you also see the textures and fibers and the like of its fabricated, foam and rubber body. Honestly, I think the effects team and director handled their budgeted monstrosity well. But I also love me some deliciously bad movies!