And you thought your adolescence was scary. Suburban Seattle the mid-1970s. We learn from the outset that a strange plague has descended upon the areas teenagers transmitted by sexual contact. The disease is manifested any number of ways
- from the hideously grotesque to the subtle (and concealable)
- but once youve got it thats it. Theres no turning back. As we inhabit the heads of several key characters
- some kids who have it some who dont some who are about to get it
- what unfolds isnt the expected battle to fight the plague or bring heightened awareness of it or even to treat it. What we become witness to instead is a fascinating & eerie portrait of the nature of high-school alienation itself
- the savagery the cruelty the relentless anxiety & ennui the longing for escape. & then the murders start. As hypnotically beautiful as it is horrifying (and believe it or not autobiographical) Black Hole" transcends its genre by deftly exploring a specific American cultural moment in flux & the kids who are caught in it
- back when it wasnt exactly cool to be a hippie any more but Bowie was still just a little too weird. To say nothing of sprouting horns & moulting your skin..."