Liquid Sky (1982)

Liquid Sky is not for the sensitive. 

“I kill with my cunt.” So says Margaret, a gender fluid Connecticut-bred WASP-turned New York fashion model caught in an unusual dilemma. Her predicament: aliens from outer space, who have come to Earth in search of poaching the pleasure effects of a heroin high, have perched on the roof of her grittily appointed penthouse. As it turns out, pheromones released via human orgasm are more potent. Margaret’s new neighbors are killing every sexual partner she takes. Anne Carlisle, a School of Visual Arts student and model who was hanging out at places like the Mudd Club, co-wrote the film and stars as Margaret—and, in a dual role twist, an androgynous junkie male model named Jimmy. 

Set against a psychedelic, orange-soaked cityscape, where the Empire State Building appears as a foreboding monolith, and with a cast of high-camp, dramatically attired downtown club kids, Liquid Sky is one of those rare, much-talked-about cult films that has become a treasured artifact of a certain time in New York, exhibited in late-night theatrical showings, passed around VHS tapes, and poorly done YouTube rips. Its premise is so seemingly random—and preposterous—that it works, dealing with the romantic mythology of doomed, ascending beauties, their vices, and their art. It’s something that could only happen in New York.

                                     A brief history of neon-soaked cult film Liquid Sky By Colleen Kelsey