Credit where credit is due, this is one of the most visually pleasing films I’ve seen in a very long time. The lighting, the sharp blacks, the dreamlike camera movement, the Shadowy fog and the unbelievable set design, it’s simply gorgeous. But that’s very much where it ends here, there’s nothing to ground that aesthetic. Where the look carries enough weight to build an insanely strong atmospehere with some creepy unsettling imagery that clearly put a stamp on the DNA of Italian horror, it falls flat it just about every other department. I’m usually not one to turn away from writing taking a backseat to style but when the film is hedging on its human centre, which is brought to us through a mediocre dual performance of two flat characters with stiff dialogue in a narrative this fucking messy, it’s prettt hard to turn the blind eye.
Credit where credit is due, this is one of the most visually pleasing films I’ve seen in a very long time. The lighting, the sharp blacks, the dreamlike camera movement, the Shadowy fog and the unbelievable set design, it’s simply gorgeous. But that’s very much where it ends here, there’s nothing to ground that aesthetic. Where the look carries enough weight to build an insanely strong atmospehere with some creepy unsettling imagery that clearly put a stamp on the DNA of Italian horror, it falls flat it just about every other department. I’m usually not one to turn away from writing taking a backseat to style but when the film is hedging on its human centre, which is brought to us through a mediocre dual performance of two flat characters with stiff dialogue in a narrative this fucking messy, it’s prettt hard to turn the blind eye.
