Possibly in Michigan (1983)

October 21, 2024 12:34 PM

Possibly in Michigan (YT) is a 1983 American shot-on-video surrealist musical horror short film written and directed by Cecelia Condit, with music by Karen Skladany, who starred in the film as Janice. The film follows two women looking for perfumes in a department store being stalked by a cannibalistic murderer wearing a mask. How Cecelia Condit’s Video Art Became a Viral Curse for Teens on TikTok.

NYT: How This 71-Year-Old Video Art Pioneer Became a TikTok Star (Archive)

An interview with Cecelia Condit

Condit's bio on her web site.

"Possibly in Michigan" is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

posted by DirtyOldTown (9 comments total)

Previously on the Blue..
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:39 PM on October 21

It’s corny.
posted by Ideefixe at 1:46 PM on October 21

I always enjoyed the songs in this, and the sing-song dialogue.
posted by umber vowel at 3:30 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

Getting things like this out to the general public is the internet working correctly (remember Channel 53?)

Condit has her own voice and vision, but it landed perfectly amongst the not-quite arthouse, not-quite midnight movie sensibilities that already rang true for me.

There's something so intuitively apt to the dissociated sing-song reading of the horror at play, and the camcorder gaze.
posted by Claude Hoeper at 6:25 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

This was my youngest kid’s favourite for quite a while! I have seen it so many times. It is so great because the moment it starts to feel almost like it’s making sense one way, she slides it another way.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:03 PM on October 21 [1 favorite]

5 stars by someone on letterboxd
posted by growabrain at 4:03 AM on October 22 [4 favorites]

Holy shit; that review is a JOURNEY.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:01 AM on October 22

The background about her connection to an actual killer is jarring and worth reading for sure, for anyone who was not familiar with that.

But even having known all of that already, it's well-written.

This line is so spot on:

Possibly in Michigan is like watching a public access channel broadcast the remnants of a half-remembered nightmare.

Yes. Exactly.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:07 AM on October 22 [1 favorite]

My favourite genre is when younger people experience out of context films from before they were born and are traumatised.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:04 AM on October 22 [4 favorites]