Poppy is a nice girl, but she's not in with the school in-crowd and in particular the object of her oh-so-painful crush - super-cool Goth rebel Corum - doesn't seem to know she's alive. Which is ironic, really, since it would be better if she wasn't, because Corum is a fully-fledged necrophiliac. Distraught, Poppy takes a long bath with a straight razor ... and then comes back from the dead. To Corum she is now 'dead sexy' and romance blossoms, but soon turns sour when Poppy discovers that Corum has been screwing around with other dead bodies behind her back ...
Comment
Wow. This episode rivals the best of the first season and takes Urban Gothic off in directions that other shows could only dream of. Where else on TV could you see a show in which the handsome lead is a necrophiliac and is seen humping and kissing a dead body in the hospital morgue? Where else would a potential girlfriend take a razor to her arms and kill herself, only to come back to life as a living zombie?
But what is so entertaining here is the humour. Poppy takes all this in her stride, clumsily stitching up her arms when she discovers she's still alive, and then finding out how to embalm her own body when it starts to rot. The realisation of all this is very well done, with blood and gore by the - literal - bucketload. Poppy's slow deterioration is handled well too, and I liked the idea of her pancake makeup washing away with her tears.
There are no explanations here and none are necessary - corpse-Poppy takes her revenge on Corum for cheating on her with other corpses and then walks off into the proverbial sunset to find a better life ... very uplifting, even if it's hard to see what practical life a living corpse could find.
This episode ranks alongside Boys Club and Pineapple Chunks for sheer entertainment value, albeit with a dark twist.
Author
Dominic McDonagh writes reviews for Comics International and Necromance is currently his only fiction sale of any note.
| Credits | |
| Written by | Dominic McDonagh |
| Directed by | Ian Knox |
| Starring | Susan Burnett (Poppy)
Alastair Bruce (Corum) Clare Buckfield (Caitlin) Catherine Bailey (Leigh) Eliza Hunt (Principal) |
Click here for full credit list | |
