Thanatomorphose

Laura is a depressed, introverted nurse who lives alone in a small apartment. She endures an abusive relationship with Antoine, who often leaves after sex. When she tends him after he injures his foot, her nursing skill becomes visible, revealing a capacity for care beneath her quiet exterior.

After their encounter, Laura experiences a private moment of self-exploration. She is distracted by a patient’s clay carving, and a disturbing red spot appears on her groin, signaling that something unsettling beginning to manifest. These details hint at a transformation that lies beneath her ordinary life.

During the night, a purple stain appears on her back after one of her nails falls off. She starts preparing for a party as friends arrive, and her meticulous cleaning ritual becomes a source of mockery when they soil the floor. Among the chatter, Julian, a friend who seems sexually interested in Laura, shows up.

The party atmosphere carries a tense undertone as Laura endures the teasing while Julian's attention lingers on her. The social visit amplifies her sense of isolation, foreshadowing the violence to come. The atmosphere is thick with unspoken desire and misread signals.

Later, Antoine forces Laura into aggressive sex, deepening the power imbalance in their relationship. The encounter leaves her shaken and emotionally numb, underscoring her vulnerability. The next morning she vomits on him, signaling a turning point in their dynamic.

That night, she staggers into the bathroom, breaks a glass, and discovers the drain clogged with her own blood. The floor becomes littered with shards as her fragility intensifies, and she moves forward despite the growing danger. The sequence blends bodily decay with an overpowering sense of dread.

She wakes naked with Antoine absent, drinks from the sink, and finds the drain still clogged with blood. Tripping on glass, she slams her head against the floor and dreams of a rotting carcass. A pool of blood forms near the wound as she bandages herself and drifts toward sleep.

Mornings bring new symptoms: Laura wakes weak, defecates while standing, and faints again. In a surreal dream, she finds herself inside a clandestine laboratory where a doctor is cutting off her hand to feed Antoine and Julian, who stand naked in cages. The waking world grows frail as her skin darkens and showers offer little relief.

Realizing the scope of her decline, she covers all windows and mirrors with black sheets to shut out the outside world. Her self-repair efforts intensify as she sutures a rotten wound on her hand and watches more nails fall away. The apartment becomes a shrine to her fading senses and control.

Laura begins to collect parts of her body that peel away—fingertips, tufts of hair, and bits of flesh—placing them into jars and photographing their evolution. She uses these pieces to fashion bloody sculptures that intertwine memory and longing for Antoine. In a disturbing montage, she recalls Antoine’s visit and the moment she felt driven to violent ends.

The next day, she develops the photographs and orders more jars for her growing collection. She contacts Julian to visit, and when he arrives, he encounters her rotting body on a mattress, begging him to have sex with her. Julian refuses and Laura murders him by stabbing him to death.

Her condition worsens: her skin turns black, maggots swarm around her exposed flesh, and a psychedelic dream of being buried alive haunts her. In her final artistic act, she assembles one last sculpture from Julian and her own remains, tearing away more skin to complete the piece. She gazes into the mirror for the last time and deliberately blinds herself by stabbing her milky eyes.

Dragging herself toward the rotting corpses of Antoine and Julian, Laura's body slides into a full decomposition. Maggots swarm anew as a final, horrifying wail escapes and her jaw detaches from her skull, leaving a lifeless skeleton on the floor.