A woman visits her parents' house to celebrate the retaking of their marriage vows, but finds that's not the only ritual on the menu.
Trippy, fractured story with stylish symbolism that kept me on my toes to the end. The opening shot carefully lays a trail of clues - not least a word in capital letters - so I knew to keep questioning what was coming at me. There's plenty of mirror-trickery to raise doubts not just about what's going on but also about who the heroine really is, and the broken up sequence of events keeps everything in confusion.
The risk with trippy story-telling is that it leaves the audience stumbling about until we stub our toe and say, Enough. So I was kinda fatigued by the halfway mark, but then the prospect of a dramatic set-piece was introduced and my attention perked up. Was it worth it? Well, I think the end broke off prematurely, probably because the writer had no good idea what the whole thing was about. I certainly didn't get the sense of all the mysteries in the puzzle locking together to reveal a genuine human experience.
The performances are good, and the editing keeps up a decent pace. The camera work dwelled a lot on mirrors, and was otherwise unremarkable. The original score caught my attention with the accordions in the dance scene, but was never switched off and proved distracting in several scenes where the actors were face to face.
It is an unusual take on this sub-genre of horror, but not as engaging as Grace (2014), and I feel the stilted mood of the set-piece reflected a lack of heart in the writing.
Overall: Intriguing but not so engaging.
Trippy, fractured story with stylish symbolism that kept me on my toes to the end. The opening shot carefully lays a trail of clues - not least a word in capital letters - so I knew to keep questioning what was coming at me. There's plenty of mirror-trickery to raise doubts not just about what's going on but also about who the heroine really is, and the broken up sequence of events keeps everything in confusion.
The risk with trippy story-telling is that it leaves the audience stumbling about until we stub our toe and say, Enough. So I was kinda fatigued by the halfway mark, but then the prospect of a dramatic set-piece was introduced and my attention perked up. Was it worth it? Well, I think the end broke off prematurely, probably because the writer had no good idea what the whole thing was about. I certainly didn't get the sense of all the mysteries in the puzzle locking together to reveal a genuine human experience.
The performances are good, and the editing keeps up a decent pace. The camera work dwelled a lot on mirrors, and was otherwise unremarkable. The original score caught my attention with the accordions in the dance scene, but was never switched off and proved distracting in several scenes where the actors were face to face.
It is an unusual take on this sub-genre of horror, but not as engaging as Grace (2014), and I feel the stilted mood of the set-piece reflected a lack of heart in the writing.
Overall: Intriguing but not so engaging.