Final Flesh (2009) Ike Sanders

Visions of the not-so-distant future don’t get much more (deliberately) puzzling than this satiric comedy. Word is out that an atomic bomb is about to level an unnamed American city, and a family of three living near ground zero — father, mother and teenage daughter — ponder what to do in the face of certain doom.

While waiting for the apocalypse, the family discusses their many bizarre nightmares, bargain with God (who communicates in the form of notes slipped under the door), experience bizarre physiological changes (such as the daughter giving birth to a steak) and dress Dad up as a giant infant so that he may return to the womb. Once the bomb finally drops, the family unexpectedly survives, but trapped inside their home, their anger towards one another grows as they openly express their bitterness and anxieties.

What’s most significant about Final Flesh is not the narrative but how it was produced. Vernon Chatman, co-creator of the TV series Wonder Showzen and Xavier: Renegade Angel, wrote a purposefully absurd and pretentious screenplay about thermo-nuclear doomsday, and then divided it into four acts. Each act was sent to a different independent adult video company, each of which specializes in enacting fetish scenarios submitted by amateurs for a price. Chatman then assembled the four completed segments into Final Flesh, with none of the actors, technicians or directors supposedly the wiser about the satiric nature of the project.

Final Flesh (2009)