‘Appendage’: The SXSW Horror Film That Turns Trauma Into a Terrifying Evil Twin
Hulu’s horror-comedy Appendage has definitely gone to therapy before. The film follows a budding fashion designer named Hannah (Hadley Robinson) whose unresolved childhood trauma begins to literally grow into a monster bent on ruining her life. Is it subtle? Absolutely not. Then again, how many evil-twin horror-comedies are?
You don't have to have done much (or any) therapy to have heard about the infamous “inner critic”—a relentless, nasty little voice that lives in our heads to bleat out our every shortcoming and failure on a loop. Appendage makes that voice literal. Writer-director Anna Zlokovic first unveiled “Appendage” as a Huluween short in 2021, with stars Rachel Sennott and Eric Roberts.
The new film fleshes out the story and adds a delicious twist at the end, but its principal achievement is its creature work. Hannah’s appendage is a bloody, perpetually slimy, pointy-toothed, milky-eyed menace with a Gremlin-like voice who calls her an “unoriginal piece of shit.” As it becomes more powerful, the appendage’s form becomes all the more revolting.