This movie had been on my peripheral for some time. I knew it within the context of hopeless cinema. When I was gathering my horror watchlist this year, I found this on letterboxd’s top 250 horror. To my surprise, it ended up being both, potently.
The result is a true amalgamation of taste/distaste in the realm of the depraved and miserable. The two main films I thought of while watching this were Suspiria and Salo. The aesthetic had me feeling proto-Haneke.
The default palette of sterile blue is juxtaposed with shadows to reveal what is hidden. When the suspense and violence ramps up, it tonally evokes Argento in its bold frightfulness. The colour and shadow combinations enhance the underlying existential conflict.
Where I depart from Salo, I embrace here. Villaronga frames his violence and sadism skillfully. His balance of show/not show pushes the limits. To me, Villaronga’s lens is wider and ontological, even at a cosmic sense. The cosmic reach of the film is facilitated by its mysteries. It unfolds enigmatically.
This is a movie that will stay with you after it has ended. It drags you to a deep dark place. You have to see some pretty unpleasant things. But those visions are so searing and provocative. And there feels like something greater lies in the distance. As if the horrors we’re seeing are tips of the ice bergs. The ugliest of humanity framed in cyclical portraiture.
This movie had been on my peripheral for some time. I knew it within the context of hopeless cinema. When I was gathering my horror watchlist this year, I found this on letterboxd’s top 250 horror. To my surprise, it ended up being both, potently.
The result is a true amalgamation of taste/distaste in the realm of the depraved and miserable. The two main films I thought of while watching this were Suspiria and Salo. The aesthetic had me feeling proto-Haneke.
The default palette of sterile blue is juxtaposed with shadows to reveal what is hidden. When the suspense and violence ramps up, it tonally evokes Argento in its bold frightfulness. The colour and shadow combinations enhance the underlying existential conflict.
Where I depart from Salo, I embrace here. Villaronga frames his violence and sadism skillfully. His balance of show/not show pushes the limits. To me, Villaronga’s lens is wider and ontological, even at a cosmic sense. The cosmic reach of the film is facilitated by its mysteries. It unfolds enigmatically.
This is a movie that will stay with you after it has ended. It drags you to a deep dark place. You have to see some pretty unpleasant things. But those visions are so searing and provocative. And there feels like something greater lies in the distance. As if the horrors we’re seeing are tips of the ice bergs. The ugliest of humanity framed in cyclical portraiture.
