“Young women are at risk of many dangers, horrors and trauma as they leave adolescence, two out of 100 girls will have a tragic ending,” reads the synopsis for Kansas Bowling’s latest film Cuddly Toys.
That statistic is completely made up, but that is to be expected from a film that harkens back to the genre of mondo. “It’s sort of like a forgotten genre that I’m trying to bring back,” Bowling says. Popular in the ’60s, mondo films are pseudo-documentaries, usually depicting sensational and exploitive topics, or shockumentaries. “A lot of the mondo movies back in the day, they would say it was all real, but sometimes it’ll be completely fictional. And then sometimes it’d be like a mixture; sometimes it’d be all real. But this is a mixture.”
With its title coming from a Harry Nilsson lyric — “You’re not the only cuddly toy/that was ever enjoyed/by any boy” — Cuddly Toys takes a nuanced and dark approach as it depicts true and fictional stories about growing up as a girl in America, with 100 actresses participating. “It’s somewhat of a horror movie, somewhat of a comedy.”
The fast-paced film, Bowling says, takes inspiration from her life, from girls she grew up with, and from the actresses themselves. “There’s just a bunch of smaller stories put together to make up a bigger story, being reconnected through the on-screen narrator,” she says.
Now 27, Bowling wrote the film when she was 19. “It feels funny putting out this, like, teenage movie now that I’m older,” she says. “I wasn’t a teenager too long ago, but, yeah, it’s a little more angsty than I am now, I guess.”
Bowling directed her first feature, B.C. Butcher, at 17, and shot the film, starring Kato Kaelin, in her dad’s backyard with money raised from bussing tables. After its release by Troma Entertainment, Bowling went on to direct over 30 music videos and act in films such as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Cuddly Toys will be her second feature.
“I just love movies,” Bowling says. “I’ve always been really passionate about them, but I guess I just feel like there’s a lot of stories that haven’t been told or haven’t been told in interesting ways.”
And Cuddly Toys promises to be “interesting,” for sure. “I don’t want to give too much away,” Bowling says, “but based on people’s reactions to it — sort of not knowing what to do with it — I feel like it means it’s not like anything they’ve seen before.”
The reactions have been myriad, with some people walking out at times due to some intense and graphic content, but Bowling has taken joy in both the good and bad reviews, noting her pride that the film’s left an impression either way.
“I didn’t make it for a certain demographic,” Bowling says, “and that’s actually what was a little difficult about getting it out there. It’s not for a certain person, but all sorts of people from different walks of life have been connecting with it. So that’s been really cool to see.”
Cuddly Toys’ premiere tour will make its way to Memphis this Sunday, August 13th, 7 p.m., and Bowling will be in attendance for a Q&A in conjunction with the screening at the Black Lodge.
For more information on the screening, visit here. Check out the trailer below.
