Mutilation and Dual Body in The Perfection (2018): A Reading on Queer Horror

The Perfection (Richard Shepard 2018) is a film that revolves around a lesbian relationship in the elitist context of a private music academy in which musical perfection is sought by the students, but enforced by faculty through sexual abuse as a way to overcome and repair incorrectness. The first protagonist is Charlotte Willmore, a professional cellist who is forced to interrupt her career due to her mother’s terminal illness; Charlotte is replaced by Elizabeth Wells (Lizzie), who takes over in virtuosity and replaces the former in terms of world fame. Once Elizabeth’s mother dies, she returns to the world of music and it is then that the narrative focuses on the friendship between both artists, based on rivalry at the very beginning, but soon becoming a homosexual relationship. Although the first sexual encounter takes place in a luxury hotel, the main contextualization of Charlotte’s and Elizabeth’s bond is principally shown in the second part of the film (called “Detour”), quite stranded from civilization and within the natural and suburban environment, reinforced by the presence of the abject.