Desperate Living [4K UHD] [US]

Release Date: 23/6/2026

Following the unrepentant outrageousness of Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, director John Waters brought his notorious trash trilogy to a fittingly twisted close with this antifascist fairy tale. After hysterical housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) murders her husband with the help of her fed-up housekeeper (Jean Hill), the newfound "sisters in crime" escape to the bizarro shantytown of Mortville, a depraved penal colony presided over by a despotic queen (Edith Massey) whose tyranny pushes her subjects to shocking revolt. Deviant cops, death by dog food, DIY surgery—Waters unleashes all this and more in an at once relentlessly warped and oddly moral vision of queer rebellion.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

• NEW 4K RESTORATION OF THE FILM, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• HDR PRESENTATION OF THE FILM
• Audio commentary featuring Waters and actor Liz Renay
• Optional Italian dub track
• New conversation between Waters and film programmer Cristina Cacioppo
• Back to Mortville, a tour of the film's main Baltimore location, led by Waters
• New interview with actors Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Mink Stole
• Interview with production designer Vincent Peranio
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Grace Byron