Details

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.

With a new 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, Desperate Living is given the Criterion treatment and released on dual-format 4K UHD and Blu-ray 20th July 2026 from Spirit Entertainment.

Special Features

  • New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
  • 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
  • An essay by critic Grace Byron
  • Cover based on an original theatrical poster featuring photography by Peter Hujar