Current mood:

thoughtful

Desecration
Still couldn't flipping sleep until about 2 am last night. Jesus. I was really tired but every time I got comfortable, my legs got really restless and kept me awake. I know, it sounds totally stupid and it was. Bloody Zoloft. So good during the day, so unendurable at night. I'm going to have to get something new.

So anyway, Desecration by Dante Tomaselli. I've seen enough low budget movies to know that this is better than the average. It would be difficult, as a horror director, not to pay homage to classic genre directors. The most obvious references in Desecration are to Dario Argento and Sam Raimi. The very start uses colours - red and blue, akin to Argento's Suspiria. There is also a dorm scene which I found similar in flavour to Suspiria. Again, most of the action centres around a school - for boys, this time. There is the influence of the mothers - although in this the three mothers are the Mother Superior, Bobby's actual biological mother and Bobby's grandmother. The timing, around Christmas and the inclusion of the family scene around the Christmas tree was reminiscent to me of Deep Red. At least there wasn't a shameless rip off of the mannequin moment, like there was in "Saw".

Conversely, you could argue that these points have nothing to do with Argento. I was trying to justify this, up until the end credits when I saw "Thanks To... Dario Argento" (among many others). Ahh, sweet vindication. Savour it, honey, it doesn't linger long.

The Raimi influences were primarily Evil Dead in origin. The flight into and through the woods, atmospheric "evil" smoke, animate plant roots, swinging light bulbs and especially Bobby's perspective when he's tripping out over the Nun's portrait.

Actually, just typing this, I'm starting to see similarities to Neil Jordan's Company of Wolves. Very dreamlike / nightmarish sequences, giant toys, again, the woods, and I guess the perils of approaching adulthood.

However, for all these points, this movie is not a rip-off. It does hang together quite well on it's own. I must confess, the ending felt a little hurried to me which is odd, because in general the movie is actually a little slow. Overall, I felt the move lost it's way somewhat, maybe because it took it's time deciding what it wanted to be.

I can't even conceive how difficult it must be to create and distribute a movie and I have nothing but respect for anybody who attempts, let alone succeeds in doing such a thing.