Summary:
A man with a growing inclination towards violence decides to murder a prostitute to get it out of his system.
My Thoughts
I’m always on the lookout for movie recommendations, and this one had come highly recommended from a buddy at work. Said buddy and I usually see eye-to-eye on films, so, when he told me I couldn’t miss this one, I leapt at a chance to check it out, and almost immediately I could tell I was going to like this movie. It’s slick and stylish, brutal and disturbing, and sometimes, darkly humorous; in other words, it’s exactly the kind of flick I enjoy.
“Can we eat first?”
Reed (Christopher Abbott, “Sweet Virginia”) is a new father who is struggling with violent impulses. So he does not hurt his wife Mona (Laia Costa, “Victoria”) and his newborn child, Reed decides that he will travel to a different city, check into a hotel and murder a prostitute. As soon as the prostitute, Jackie (Mia Wasikowska, “Crimson Peak”), arrives, his plan begins to go awry.
The opening scene of this movie immediately caught my attention; a man, approaching a baby in the middle of the night, an ice pick grasped tightly in his fist, his eyes wide with the terror of what he’s about to do. That scene is pretty intense, and it’s also a perfect way to introduce us to a character who is as complex as any other psychopath we’ve come across in cinema, be it Patrick Bateman (“American Psycho”), Henry Lee Lucas (“Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer”), or Anton Chigurh (“No Country for Old Men”). Reed is a creepy dude, but it’s not just good enough to be creepy, he needs to be compelling in order for us to care about what he’s doing, and Abbott absolutely nails that performance; he’s equal parts predatory and nervous about his fast approaching kill, and that anticipation of what is to come, and how he handles that anticipation is what sets the movie apart.
Mia Wasikowska’s character is also a rather interesting person, and the way in which we get to know her character is just as interesting as the introduction to Abbot’s character. While the most compelling parts of Abbott’s character are laid bare at the beginning, Mia’s character takes a bit of time to understand, and that depth helps to add a bit of mystery to the flick.
Perhaps one of the more stylish moments of the film (and this film is very stylish), comes when Reed ‘practices’ his kill by acting out exactly what it is he will do to the prostitute once she arrives. The attention to detail in Reed’s motions, as well as the added sound effects, crafts a scene that feels as if were right there with this psychopath, wanting, just as he wants, to plunge that ice pick into someone. The direction really just brings all of that anticipation and emotion forward in a very visceral way. As a side note, I’ve also heard great things about Pesce’s first film, “Eyes of My Mother”, and Pesce’s has been tapped to direct the upcoming “Grudge” remake, which is being produced by Sam Raimi (director of “The Evil Dead”), so you can certainly color me intrigued when it comes to Pesce.
The best thing about this movie other than the stylish direction is the way that the story completely subverts your expectations in a pretty outstanding way; from plot progression to character relationships, this film sort of takes you for a wild ride. I wont go into miniscule details as to how this happens, as I feel that would sort of spoil the fun. I will admit that, during one point nearing the climax, there’s a moment when something terrible feels inevitable, and then, for seemingly no reason, that something terrible is just avoided and we move onto the next scene. If there were any major flaws in the film, it would be that sequence; however, the film does more than enough to make up for that one part with a bunch of trippy and wholly brutal sequences near the end.
There’s a sort of masochistic pseudo-sexual vibe that permeates this whole film, and while there is very little nudity, that tone certainly makes the film feel pretty uncomfortable for a large portion of the movie. That uncomfortable feeling is something that we horror fans don’t necessarily hate- being a horror fan is somewhat masochistic, after all- you’re looking for something that will terrify you. I guess I’m saying that, though my experience was one that I didn’t necessarily enjoy, it is exactly the kind of tone I would be looking for when I want a really f*cked up movie to sit down to. Make me feel squeamish, disturbed, or revolted. I want to feel something when I sit down for horror flicks, and I certainly felt a lot in this film. I felt similar during my initial viewing of the final scenes of Takashi Miike’s “Audition”.
Verdict:
This is a pretty solid little thriller/horror flick. It has enough disturbing imagery and uncomfortable themes to keep even the most hardened of genre-fans entertained and captivated from start to finish. It boasts some solid performances and some inspired direction, and in the end, it provides a creepy enough atmosphere for me to recommend it to people I know are horror fans.
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