Blood of the Soskas Cocktail

2 oz Empress Gin
1 oz Blood Orange Juice
¼ oz Blood Orange Syrup
Lucid Absinthe rinse

Shake Gin and Juice with ice and strain into an Absinthe rinsed Coupe glass. Top with the dripping, red syrup and garnish with twin Blood Orange wheels.

I’m adding a new drink to my list of Cocktails From Beyond and dedicating it to the release of the Soska Sisters‘ newest film, Rabid, a remake of the 1977 film by the master of body horror, David Cronenberg. Many of their earlier films, most notably American Mary, call back to that Canadian genius in a Grindhouse Cronenberg kinda way and I’m psyched to see what they do with this.

This drink is a Monkey Gland variation made with freshly squeezed Blood Orange juice along with some newly homemade Blood Orange Syrup made from some of that juice. I was hoping that the syrup would streak a little adding to the bloody look. I chose Empress Gin a little for its color to deepen the overall presence of the drink but more for its floral flavor and fragrance. Lucid Absinthe is always a go-to for making drinks.

I based this drink on the Monkey Gland for several reasons, not least of which is the absolute true to life body horror that the Monkey Gland gets its name from. You can read all about it in a comic I did a couple of years ago for a sequential arts class (click the pic!). Secondly, I wanted to make a drink variation from something that normally uses Orange Juice so I could swap it out for that sweet, rich, Blood….Orange as the film follows a woman affected by an experimental procedure that leaves her with virulent new cravings.

I almost called this The Rabid, but that just didn’t sound appealing. Twisted Twins Cocktail didn’t work as I didn’t know how to integrate any kind of real “Twinning” with the ingredients and it also made me think “Twisted Sister”, thus of Dee Snyder who isn’t nearly as pretty to imagine, though maybe I will make a Captain Howdy drink in the future. I didn’t want to leave “Monkey” in the title and The Soska Gland was just wrong, so, I kept it elegant with a bit of menace and hope the Evil Twins don’t mind me dedicating a drink to them.

As much as I’m not really a fan of remakes, especially remakes of films that were already really good, this was probably the most available Cronenberg film to remake. Videodrome, Scanners, or even The Brood would be near blasphemous to redo as you’ll just never recapture that unique Cronenberg atmosphere that sticks to your soul every waking moment. Shivers could be great, but to do it well and proper you’d have to really push the boundaries of the explicit in today’s cinema. I’m feeling that the age and story of the original Rabid will lend itself to a good remake in the loving, blood-soaked hands of the Twisted Twins and maybe turn others on to more of Cronenberg’s work. With drink to my expectant lips, I will now sit down to watch.