The Thingy: Confessions of a Teenage Placenta (AKA The Miracle of Life) is proof that I will watch absolutely anything. It's definitely one of the weirdest movies to be released by Troma, and that's saying something.Starting as it means to go on (in full-on bonkers mode), the film opens with a female body builder Marianne (played a man, Pascal Maetens) giving birth in the gym. For some reason I can't quite fathom, the baby is put in a plastic bag and discarded, and the placenta is presented to the proud mother, who promptly holds the fleshy protein sac to her breast for feeding. So far, so freaky.Years pass, and the placenta, named Luke, attends school, but finds it hard to fit in with his peers. As a teenager, he develops an interest in the opposite sex, falling for classmate Rihanna (Sofie Hoflack). When a date with the girl doesn't go as he had hoped, Marianne hires a prostitute, Angie (Celine Verbeeck), to satisfy her son's carnal urges (she strokes his umbilical cord), after which (again for reasons I cannot fathom) Luke takes a gun and goes on a killing spree.Even more bizarre than the title suggests, The Thingy throws up one 'WTF?' moment after another, making it a genuine one-of-a-kind experience: Marianne only exercises one arm, the right bulging with muscles, the left comparatively skinny; in one scene, the fish on Marianne's wallpaper momentarily come to life and swim about; another freakish moment sees Marianne breastfeeding the pet dog; and there's a brief, trippy animated sequence that bears no relation to the rest of the film.As far as the central character is concerned, Luke the Placenta is a rubbery blob with very little movement, a creation that makes Belial from Basket Case look like a marvel of special effects by comparison; however, one can't help but feel for the little guy, at least until he goes on his bloody rampage, shooting his mother and seven defenceless infants in a maternity ward. Naughty Luke!The film closes with Luke confiding in his priest godfather Julio (Karel Vingerhoets), who cooks his godson and eats him—a demented finish to a thoroughly messed up movie.5/10—difficult to recommend to most movie fans but unmissable for those who deliberately seek out cinematic oddities.

THE THINGY is one of the weirdest films I can remember seeing in a long time. This escaped from Belgium and tells of a living placenta which is brought up like a child and undergoes various trials and tribulations. It plays out as a quirky comedy - it had to because when you see the quality of the special effects you'll know this could never be taken seriously - and is generally uninteresting for the most part.At times THE THINGY feels like nothing more than a social drama which just so happens to have a monster protagonist rather than an abused kid. The titular creature is indebted to BASKET CASE but very badly animated, if you can even call it that; it's just a lump of plasticine that sits there. Everything else is a chore to sit through.

Only put this on because I was curious to see what a teenage placenta looks like, but boy what an unexpected treat. Took me back to years ago when I loved to get drunk, then smoke a little salvia - just enough to feel the electricity flowing through my arms out of my fingertips and get a bad case of rhyming word garble. I'd wind up passing out drunk and have freaky dreams I could barely remember the next day. This gem is like one of those dreams was captured on film so I could enjoy it in sobriety. The level of detail is amazing. I kept pausing so I could look at all the stuff in the background. Could probably watch it twenty times and keep finding things I never noticed before. The camera work is fantastic. It's well written, the characters are thoughtfully fleshed out, and the acting matches the dialog. At first it reminded me of John Waters' early films, but overall the tone is much darker. This is not really a comedy, it's just so weird and sick you may laugh in discomfort. Possibly the most bizarre film I've ever seen that still manages to have a coherent plot. Will definitely have my eye out for future works by Joel Rabijns and Yves Sondermeier.

I'm always searching the world to find underground flicks so by attending conventions I do come across those flicks. Let this be such one. It's made in Belgium and is out now but the problem is always promotion. There's another horror flick out in Belgium 'Welp' which do has a lot of promo going on due Halloween but back to The Miracle Of Life. It wasn't an easy flick to watch due a few reasons. First of all, the promo at the convention did state Basket Case (1982). It's always dangerous to be compared with a classic and people who know me do know that Basket Case wasn't my thing. But at the promo I saw that indeed some 'thing' is living in the flick who did refer to the creature (brother) in Basket Case. Once I plugged in the flick it was immediately clear that the only thing referring to Basket Case was the look of the placenta in this flick. But it also remind me of Brain Damage (1988). The first minute it was clear that this was going to be something strange and the score used did confirm it. Seeing a man being dressed as a girl being in a fitness surrounded by body builders having a baby, yes, you do read this, says enough. This is not a usual flick.The baby is being thrown away and the placenta is given mother's milk! So it do lives. From here we do see it being baptist, falling in love, being visited by a hooker (the only nudity) and becoming sick in the mind and taking it's revenge. In fact, people do react in a strange way when they see the placenta and being teased at school it's getting hurt in many ways.For such kind of flick it was filmed rather well and the editing was also above mediocre. And they sure knew their thing adding flair with colour grading and using the depth of focus. But I can understand that some will be turned away by the story and the characters throughout this flick. If you do hurry and buy it in special edition you get a prop of the placenta. Don't believe to see the next Basket Case, it's between horror and art-flick (the use of animation...)Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 2,5/5 Story 2,5/5 Comedy 0/5