Livide

Immediately after the screening: For the time being, all I can be is flabbergasted and say: “What the fuck was that?”… Subjectively, anywhere between five stars and rubbish, I’ll see in the morning. After some time: Bustillo and Maury have surprised me. I knew from the first festival responses that they had made a completely different film than Inside, but that it would be SO different than ANYTHING you can see today in the genre was something I didn’t expect. Livid ignores the trends that have prevailed in the genre for the last decade, it doesn’t pretend to be realistic, and it doesn’t explain anything – scary things happen for unspecified reasons and according to unspecified rules. Sooner or later you may get the feeling that this is “silly fantasy”. The occasional manifestations of brutal violence (perfect gore!) are surrounded by a dreamy atmosphere that blends many fantastical elements. Some of the awfully terrifying scenes almost gave me nightmares. If I had to characterise it somehow, comparing it to some older film, I would go perhaps for a combination between Argento’s Suspiria and Coscarelli’s Phantasm. Some people can take this as a recommendation, others as a warning. But if you do give this film a chance, you should bear in mind that you will have to forget about analytical thinking, refrain from seeking the causality of the plot, and just let yourself be scared by terrifying scenes, enjoy the beautiful visuals and take the film as a whole as a symbolic tour of a haunted house. That said, I’m not all that thrilled about it. (06/04/2012)