From Google- ‘A housewife (Mink Stole) murders her husband, runs away and ends up in a town ruled by an evil queen who wants to infect her kingdom with rabies.’

Desperate Living feels like quintessential Waters…but with significant differences. Firstly, Divine doesn’t feature. He was actually appearing on stage and so couldn’t appear. Susan Lowe would take up the reins (brilliantly) of the role Waters wrote with Divine specifically in mind.

Another difference is that we get dream casting from Waters. Both Jean Hill and Liz Renay are fantastic and bring a lot to the film.

Desperate Living feels like the underdog in Waters’ early filmography which makes me adore it even more. It’s genuinely brilliant with Waters’ ever riotous dialogue, performances which are some of the most extreme yet and a vision that is very different from any of Waters’ films before this. The film also took longer than any of Waters’ other films to earn its budget back also.

The film has famous fans too. Roseanne Barr does a Queen Carlotta impression during her interview with Waters in the mid 90’s.

In foreign countries it had the apt (and very perceptive) title of Punk Story- Desperate Living and the films before it all helped herald in punk. Waters went to see the original UK punk band such as The Pistols when he was over here publicising the film.

And now the film has been announced to be released as part of the highly esteemed Criterion Collection. Which is fully justified.

4.5 out of 5 stars