Lust, Lies, and Tentacles

Read Time:5 Minute, 28 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Touch Me
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Genre: Thriller, Comedy, LGBTQIA2S+
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director(s): Addison Heimann
Writer(s): Addison Heimann
Cast: Olivia Taylor Dudley, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jordan Gavaris, Marlene Forte, Paget Brewster
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 Fantasia Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: TOUCH ME doesn’t care if you’re ready for the journey ahead. It just grabs hold and drags you into a neon-soaked spiral of grief, desire, and seduction, where logic is fluid and feelings are uncomfortable, and dare I say, sticky—often literally. For writer-director Addison Heimann, last seen at Fantasia with his 2022 breakout HYPOCHONDRIAC, this is a full-blown eruption of genre chaos that somehow still circles back to something deeply personal.

The setup sounds ridiculous, and that’s because it is. Joey (played with vulnerability by Olivia Taylor Dudley) and Craig (Jordan Gavaris) are dysfunctional best friends barely holding it together when Joey’s ex, Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), shows up again… wearing an alien jumpsuit… and oozing a euphoric toxin that turns touch into narcotic ecstasy. From there, the film evolves into a love triangle marked by cosmic manipulation, intense intimacy, and a satirical descent into emotional decay. Oh—and yes, there are tentacles. I thought long and hard about how to word this paragraph, and in the end, I don’t think the film is spoiled at all by sharing this chaotic field subnosis.

But beyond the immediate shock factor and outrageous body horror, what stands out is the way TOUCH ME balances spectacle with a surprisingly sharp emotional core. Heinmann isn’t here just to provoke or gross out (though he does plenty of both). Under the absurdity lies a brutal honesty about codependency and addiction. Joey and Craig aren’t just caught in a weird sci-fi scenario—they’re drowning in emotional quicksand, addicted to toxicity in every form: chemical, physical, interpersonal.

Dudley sells every aspect of this chaos with a performance that veers from self-deprecating comedy to soul-baring monologue without ever losing control. Her chemistry with Gavaris is electric in all the best and worst ways—this is the kind of co-lead dynamic where you root for them and want them far away from each other at the same time. Pucci’s alien-ex Brian, meanwhile, walks a wild tightrope between seductive and grotesque, playing narcissism as both comedy and contagion.

Visually, Heinmann doesn’t hold back. TOUCH ME is flooded with saturated colors, hyper-stylized editing, and abrupt shifts in tone and texture. Practical effects explode without warning, and scenes are often scored with a kind of anxious euphoria. At times, it feels like a midnight anime crossed with a queer adult swim cartoon that overdosed on David Cronenberg. Somehow, that’s praise.

Yet even with all its stylistic eccentricity, what gives TOUCH ME its edge is the intentional contrast between its camp and its sincerity. Heinmann leans into genre but never loses his grip on the human story. Amid the slime, sex, and absurdist monologues is a very real exploration of what it means to survive your own worst patterns—and still long for someone who only knows how to destroy you. Somehow this story touches your heart, even though you can’t imagine it doing so, you find yourself invested in the back and forth in a way that means something.

It’s fair to note this film isn’t for everyone. The film's tone offers a kind of narrative whiplash, along with humor that leans a little too hard on millennial irony, yet remains intriguing and oddly specific. There are also moments where the weirdness risks collapsing into incoherence. But even at its most chaotic, TOUCH ME never feels like it’s flailing. It knows exactly what it’s doing—it’s just not interested in handholding.

If HYPOCHONDRIAC was about the slow unraveling of mental health under queer pressure, TOUCH ME flips the equation: it explores the pleasure in losing control, and the horror of wanting it. And while it goes bigger and weirder than its predecessor, it still echoes the same wounds—this time disguised in slime-covered spectacle.

It helps that the supporting cast is so on point. Paget Brewster has a scene-stealing turn that balances the ridiculous with the sincere, while Marlene Forte brings unexpected grounding to an otherwise free-falling story. There’s also a surprising amount of world-building done through implication rather than exposition. The alien threat doesn’t need to be explained in full—it’s symbolic, it’s physical, it’s emotional.

Whether you see it as a queer metaphor for abusive relationships, a satire on hookup culture, or just a gonzo midnight flick about cosmic kink, TOUCH ME invites interpretation without ever prescribing meaning. That’s a rare and welcome quality, especially in a genre that often spells everything out. By the time it ends, you may feel exhausted—but not in a bad way. It’s the kind of film that leaves your brain sticky and buzzing, unsure of whether you just watched something deeply profound or completely unhinged. The answer is probably both.

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[photo courtesy of YELLOW VEIL PICTURES, GLOWING TREE FILMS, RUSTIC FILMS, WTFILMS]

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