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“Grotesque” seems too polite an adjective for Adam Rifkin’s 1991 THE DARK BACKWARD, a relentlessly toxic fable dressed up in the oversized suit of bilious black comedy. Judd Nelson is cringe incarnate as Marty Malt, a sweaty nebbish whose dreams of stand-up stardom become a Kafkaesque nightmare when a third arm starts growing out of his back. Eager to cash in on Marty’s deformity is accordion-wielding garbageman Gus, played with literal shit-eating glee by Bill Paxton in what may be his most committed performance (or perhaps, the performance that should have gotten him committed). Unfolding across garbage-strewn hellscapes and dumpster-dive bars seemingly lit entirely with radioactive isotopes, THE DARK BACKWARD is an infernal belch in the face of good taste that must be seen to believed–and that can never be unseen.

Presented by The Front Row