This film had the potential to be something new and creative in the horror genre, but wirter/director Brandon Cronenberg settles for more of the same of his usual style with little in the way of an understanding of why these events are occuring or even caring that they are happening. Now, I am a fan of his. Antiviral and Possessor are fantastic films that benefit from his particular brand of trippy visuals and existential analysis. The difference between those films and his latest effort is he does little to help build tension and does nothing to make us care for any of the characters he has written. They are all terrible people, not one of them worth redemption.
All the acting is very well done, Mia Goth is always a sure bet when playing a sinister crazy person. Alexander Skarsgård, unfortunately, isn't given enough material here to truly shine in his role. He's a practically one dimensional shell of a character, and that is one of the main reasons the film did not work for me. I felt nothing for his character, and the character makes some of the worst decisions I've seen on film. Barely any of the film makes sense if I'm being honest. Best not to ask why to any of the questions you have because, more than likely, they will not be answered. Seriously, the movie will bring up a point and then completely ditch it the next minute. It was a frustrating watching experience.
I would like to see the NC-17 director's cut just to see how much of the depravity was actually cut out of the film as I felt this one was rather tame, minus a heated and trippy orgy segment that was pretty graphic for an R rated film. But violence wise, I felt the film didn't go far enough and what was shown was just too strange and disconnected for it to have any impact.
Then we come to the ending. Wtf was that? He just decides to stay? Why? Everybody left! There was nothing left to do, why would he not go home himself? Also, he didn't even try to get even with the people who just destroyed his entire life for their amusement? Then what was the purpose of any of this story? It didn't really have one from what I could tell. Disappointing.
Overall, I only recommend it when it's free on a streaming service. Otherwise, I would say don't bother. Only reason I'm not giving it a 0 is because it was well made. The trippy cinematography was on point, but that was about it.
1.5 cults out of 5.
All the acting is very well done, Mia Goth is always a sure bet when playing a sinister crazy person. Alexander Skarsgård, unfortunately, isn't given enough material here to truly shine in his role. He's a practically one dimensional shell of a character, and that is one of the main reasons the film did not work for me. I felt nothing for his character, and the character makes some of the worst decisions I've seen on film. Barely any of the film makes sense if I'm being honest. Best not to ask why to any of the questions you have because, more than likely, they will not be answered. Seriously, the movie will bring up a point and then completely ditch it the next minute. It was a frustrating watching experience.
I would like to see the NC-17 director's cut just to see how much of the depravity was actually cut out of the film as I felt this one was rather tame, minus a heated and trippy orgy segment that was pretty graphic for an R rated film. But violence wise, I felt the film didn't go far enough and what was shown was just too strange and disconnected for it to have any impact.
Then we come to the ending. Wtf was that? He just decides to stay? Why? Everybody left! There was nothing left to do, why would he not go home himself? Also, he didn't even try to get even with the people who just destroyed his entire life for their amusement? Then what was the purpose of any of this story? It didn't really have one from what I could tell. Disappointing.
Overall, I only recommend it when it's free on a streaming service. Otherwise, I would say don't bother. Only reason I'm not giving it a 0 is because it was well made. The trippy cinematography was on point, but that was about it.
1.5 cults out of 5.