La Petite Reine, Studio 37, Canal+,
Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, America Olivo, Sammi Rotibi, Liane Balaban, Morgane Slemp, Genevieve Alexandra, Megan Duffy, Jan Broberg
Frank (Elijah Wood) is a very disturbed young man. He definitely has Mommy issues. Frank owns a sort of mannequin museum of a sorts. He collects antique mannequins and restores them, but he has a delusion that they are real, and he has a strong desire to collect hair for them. When he meets a young artist, they form a connection as he provides the mannequins for her latest art show, and she provides the fodder for his hideous delusions. This creepy horror film is a remake of the original low budget 1980 horror film by the same title.
This is not an easy film to watch. There are several things that make it unique in a lot of ways. For one thing, the film is nearly all shot in first person, so the only views we get of the killer himself are when he sees his reflection in a mirror or window pane. This gives it a really strange feel, and the gory parts are really close up as if were were right there when he scalps his victims. Another thing that is pretty decent here is that they just don’t go in for the kill. He stalks them, filmed in first person, and we hear him breathing and talking and such, but seeing what he sees builds the suspense quickly! The biggest problem in this is that I feel Elijah Wood is badly miscast in this film. He is really not menacing at all, and I just am unable to see Frodo in this light. Granted, similar to Psycho, although much gorier with a lot more killing, Norman Bates was not a big bad menacing creature. He was menacing though, and we could easily accept his ability to kill due to his madness. Elijah convinces us he is insane, and we are shown through flashback why, but he just never pulled off the menacing character, for me, who could do these atrocities. I think that hurt this film. This is a horrifying little film that is pretty well done for what it is, but it was not a great movie. If you need a quick horror fix, it’s not too bad, and it is pretty bloody and gory, but it’s not worth driving around town to find it. Perhaps that’s why it was released on DVD and streaming on the same day.
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