Daria Nicolodi

I guess I prefer psychological horror, while this was entirely visceral. Brilliantly so -- baroque sets dripping with deep reds, explicit, over-the-top shots of stabbings, maulings, and a woman writhing in a nest of razor wire. But the stiff dialogue and thin plot didn't quite work for me the way it seems to have for others. I can see how it might have been intended as a kind of Brechtian distancing effect, but it left me feeling like I was just eating my cinematic vegetables, watching show more something because it's an iconic part of film history but not really feeling engaged. show less