'Stuffed' Review: Jodie Comer & Harry Melling Find Love In Macabre Taxidermy Musical [TIFF 2026] – Bloody Disgusting

A lonely man seeking an escape from mundanity volunteers to become taxidermized in Stuffed, a morbid musical feature debut from director Theo Rhys, who co-writes with Joss Holden-Rea. Jodie Comer (28 Years Later) and Harry Melling (The Pale Blue Eye) delight as a quirky pair of oddballs courting life and death in an offbeat gothic musical that’s far more tender than its Sweeney Todd influence.
Stuffed‘s macabre nature and stylings are evident from the outset, with the harsh yet fitting introduction to Araminta (Jodie Comer) as she pulls up to a dying pet on the road, cradling it close while soothing its whimpers with a lullaby. Then she abruptly puts an end to the dog’s pain, permanently. Araminta loads the dead dog into her eerie black van, brings him home, and sets about restoring him in taxidermy form to join her sprawling collection.
It’s an encapsulation of her life’s work; Araminta is an isolated loner who spends her days scouring for dead or dying animals to resurrect via taxidermy. But her greatest life’s dream is to taxidermize a human.
Enter Bernie (Harry Melling), a milquetoast sweetheart who’s overlooked by everyone around him, made even more acutely painful in that the one person who did, his mom (Claire Novelli), no longer recognizes him due to dementia.
It makes him the perfect candidate to fulfill Araminta’s request. When the pair connect and begin their plan, though, it awakens profound emotions in both.
There’s a variety of clashing tones and genres at play that get Stuffed off to a rocky start. It takes a while for Rhys to settle into a comfortable rhythm, for the competing tones of somber, sentimental, and overt gothic influences to coalesce, which is just about the time when Bernie and Araminta’s paths finally converge in earnest. 
There are clear shades of Frankenstein in this peculiar romance, with the gentle and sympathetic Bernie slowly disarming the steely Araminta, a traumatized mad scientist of sorts when it comes to her artistic pursuits and concept of death. It’s the ever-sympathetic Melling and a complex, emotionally charged Comer that anchor this tricky genre-hybrid, one that keeps the audience in its tender grip even when dispensing macabre imagery or dabbling in body horror.
It also helps that Rhys and Holden-Rea, who also handle the film’s songs, never overexplain, especially when it comes to Araminta’s disturbing past. Instead, it’s a point that fuels our curiosity and invests us further in the core relationship, and Comer latches onto the meaty inner turmoil as Araminta finds herself on the precipice of fulfilling her greatest wish but realizing what the ultimate cost of that may be.
Melling and Comer also establish themselves as quite adept when it comes to belting out the Sweeney Todd-like ballads and dissonant harmonies. Holden-Rea takes a more classical Broadway approach to the music, opting for a more timeless quality. That it’s more somber in nature means that there aren’t any particular standout numbers, though.
While Stuffed is ultimately a heartwarming gothic tale, it does build to a suitable though emotionally complex finale, one that’s bittersweet but well-earned. 
Stuffed begins on unsure footing and stretches its first act a bit too long, but the more it delves into the interiority of two rather peculiar love interests, the more assured and infectious it becomes. It’s a tender musical for the weirdos; at the TIFF premiere, Rhys revealed that this story was inspired by German cannibal Armin Meiwes, evolving it with the simple question of what would happen if the volunteering victim sparked a love story? 
Rhys’ debut is never quite as disturbing or as dark as his story’s inspiration, but Stuffed still makes for a winsome, morbid gothic vision of love, life, and death. 
Stuffed made its world premiere at TIFF. Release info TBA.

 
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