If you’ve ever heard of JoJo the Dog-faced Boy or Lionel the Lion man, you’ve heard of individuals who suffered from the condition hypertrichosis, which causes the growth hair all over the body. I have a bit of the Carnie in my soul, so had I lived in years past and been unfortunate enough to have inherited this condition—hypertrichosis is genetic, not pathogenic; it is not something one can “catch”—I’m sure I would have tried to make the most of it by joining up with some freak show. Let the rubes pay their hard-earned money to gawk at me. Since they’re gonna gawk, anyway, you might as well get paid for it, don’tcha think?
The best movie I’ve seen dealing with the subject is 2001’s BLOOD MOON, despite its awful and misleading title. Its original title, WOLF GIRL, would have been so much better. It tells the tale of a hairy freak (beautiful actress Victoria Sanchez covered in fake hair) who begins to turn feral as she loses her excessive furriness. A clever juxtaposition; the more human she looks, the more bestial she becomes. Which is kinda fitting, if you think about it. Civilization. Hair today, gone tomorrow.
