The Toll of Codependency: Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth (2005)

Alex Ross Perry’s Queen of Earth (2005) is a subtle and silent thriller/psychological horror film that is like no other with its poignancy, non-linear narrative, and phenomenal acting performances from both Elizabeth Moss (Catherine) and Katherine Waterston (Virginia). The entire plot revolves around the same setting, which is the lake cabin that is owned by Virginia’s parents, aside from some minuscule flashbacks. A dysfunctional friendship is superadded with bleeding verbal confrontations to the core of honesty and candidness, and the events and interactions taking place in the film are straight out of the bowels of friendship hell.  

The first scene of the film is Catherine crying toward her boyfriend, her make-up has been ruined and her utter outward appearance is in shambles, possibly due to the news she has received. Her boyfriend, who has cheated on her, and Catherine’s breaking up on top of the recent demise of her father in such a short amount of time is utterly devastating, and it has been displayed throughout the entire presence and being in Catherine. Upon her sorrow, Catherine decides to go out on a holiday in Virginia’s parents’ lake cabin to heal from this desolation—which, as we learn, is a common theme and trademark quality of their friendship. However, this uneventful decision unravels an esoteric and psychological toll on the well-being of Catherine and highlights the truths regarding their relationship. 

A challenging film that requires several rewatches, Queen of Earth’s visual narrative is a display of a frenzied fever dream which reminisces a psychotic attack. A substantial amount of visual and auditory clues and implications are employed in accentuating the deteriorating mental faculties of Catherine, the atmosphere sounds, at times, resemble Hitchcock’s Psycho. Perry utilizes flashbacks occasionally to evoke the past in comparison to the present in the film: the relationship between Catherine and Virginia in the previous year compared to the present time. Moreover, Catherine’s invitation of her now-ex-boyfriend James to their sole seclusion had caused a stir between Virginia and James, and now in the present time this struggle is shifted toward the confrontation between Rich, Virginia’s present-day lover, and Catherine, who is alone and single at that time.        

Learning that Catherine’s father, who was a successful artist from New York, had perished due to depression-related causes, we can trace the generational and genetic splatter of depression in Catherine’s character and mentality as well. Compared to Virginia, who actively partakes in physical sports and eats healthy, Catherine often can be seen as consuming snacks and barely partakes in any physical activity. This can be traced to Catherine’s mental suffering, which engendered itself in her corporeal being as well.    

In the present day, Virginia acts like a suspicious and skeptical care taker toward Catherine. At times, Virginia listens to her phone calls and secretly observes her behavior when she is alone as if Virginia is deeply skeptical of her mental well-being and scared that Catherine might take some serious, irretrievable action toward either herself or someone else. The reasoning behind Virginia’s benign voyeurism has been justified in the party scene, and upon realizing that Virginia’s phone calls have simply been just her talking to herself—or imagining talking to someone else in a dead phone call.

Lastly, in the movie, the crippling mental institution of Catherine is mostly attributed to her being codependent on two male figures in her life: James and her father. As her father is now dead and James broke up with her, she feels extremely abandoned and with no guidance to move forward with her life. Since she has always been taken care of by these two men throughout her entire life, and now with them gone, Catherine’s mental and physical accountability exponentially decreases, hinting at some deficiency and deprivation in her true character. All of this, ultimately, results in her losing her sanity and prosperity which she had when she was under the wings of James and her father.