Even though this movie ties itself up a little too perfectly by the end, it felt like a less ambiguous satanic panic take on the first season of True Detective. This made it maybe more of a thriller that had dabbled in the metaphysical section of the local bookstore in the most magical of ways.

The early 90s still had the lingering stink of the 70s and the unhinged religious intensity of the 80s which this movie manages to hang…

Compared to the comfortably cult Goodnight Mommy I cannot help but wonder if Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala were hoping to make a more broadly palatable thriller. The hazelnut palette was distracting enough to ignore the stupidity of the premise presumably thanks to Thimios Bakatakis taking a break from shooting banana pants Lanthimos films. There were many forgivable misfires. But the eye roll inducing lavishness of their getaway cabin in the woods being an 8,000+ sq ft dollhouse, easily three…

This film is maybe a fitting start to using letterboxd. Rewatching after around two decades with way more crap in my head but far less fog obscuring it all, and having recently watched Von Trier’s ending for The Kingdom, it was very rewarding to see his obsessions nearly all here in the raw. I recall seeing this on a VHS bootleg that was a complete mess when I was young and just as much of a mess myself. I filled…