NME can exclusively share the trailer for short film Hideous, a horror musical starring The xx bandmates Oliver Sim and Jamie xx.
Directed by Yann Gonzalez (Knife+Heart, Islands), Hideous is described as an avant-garde three-part musical about growing up as a queer boy living with HIV.
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In the short, Sim stars as the main guest of a talk show which slides into a surreal journey of love, blood and homage to some of the singer’s favourite horror films. The short also features songs from Sim’s upcoming debut solo album ‘Hideous Bastard’, which he has previewed with singles ‘Hideous’, ‘Fruit’, ‘Romance With A Memory’ and ‘GMT’.
Jimmy Somerville stars in the short as The Guardian Angel with drag queen Bimini as The Queen Of Doom. Jamie xx, who has produced Sim’s debut album, also features as The Sound Guy, alongside Fehinti Balogun, César Vicente and Kate Moran.
The trailer features footage from Sim’s music video for ‘Hideous’, released in May. Speaking about the track, Sim said: “Early on in the making of my record, ‘Hideous Bastard’, I realised that I was writing a lot about fear and shame. I imagine that might paint a picture of a dark, ‘woe is me’-sounding album, but in recent years I’ve become a firm believer that the best antidote to these feelings can be bringing them to the surface and shedding some light on them.
“I haven’t written the record to dwell, but rather to free myself of some of the shame and fear that I’ve felt for a long time. So, I hear a lot of the music as joyous, because the experience of writing and recording it has been the complete opposite of what fear and shame have been for me.”
He added: “Two thirds in, having a good idea of what the record was about, I realised I’d been circling around one of the things that has probably caused me the most fear and shame. My HIV status. I’ve been living with HIV since I was 17 and it’s played with how I’ve felt towards myself, and how I’ve assumed others have felt towards me, from that age and into my adult life.”
Last month, Sim announced tour dates across North America, Europe and the UK starting in September.
‘Hideous’ will be available exclusively on MUBI from September 8
