A CLASSIC HORROR STORY
Italy, 2021, 95 minutes, Colour.
Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Francesco Russo, Peppino Mazzotta, Will Merrick, Yuliia Sobol, Alida Baldari Calabria.
Directed by Roberto de Feo, Paolo Strippoli.
In some ways, the title is rather pretentious, that is the setting itself up as something of a classic. On the other hand, it is acknowledging that it is paying homage to and borrowing from classic horror films. And, sometimes, tongue-in-cheek.
Fans who like gory horror films will probably put this on their list, not one of their greatest, but satisfactory. Those who take horror films seriously will probably consider it inferior and failed to notice how it is sending itself up. And for those who enjoy films would send themselves up, there are all the references to other horror films as well is the revelation of how the plot works.
As the film progresses, audiences can be noticing the various conventions from horror films, especially the filming of horror films. And, ultimately, the screenplay seems to owe a great debt to Midsommer, and, some have noticed, The Wicker Man.
There is also a lot of poking fun at whether Italians can make this kind of horror film or not!
A group of people travelling in a van, driven by a film student, Fabrizio, travelling towards Calabria. The passengers include a doctor responsible for deaths and whose wife is rejecting him, Elisa company adviser his mother wants her to have an abortion, and a couple, she from Eastern Europe, he from England, who met in the United States. There is some drinking, the Englishman taking the wheel, a dead animal on the Road, a crash into a tree, everybody coming to far from the main road in a strange country atmosphere.
There are haunted house aspects of the plot, people searching for the Road and going in circles, Knights passing. There is also a mysterious mythology of three nights, sinister costumes hanging on a wall and the discovery of a girl whose tongue has been removed hiding in the costumes.
Which gives rise, of course, to a weird community emerging, explanations of rituals, various members of the travelling group tortured and killed (and first the very of noxious Englishman).
There is a Revelation that Fabrizio comes from the area, is responsible for the crash, is taking the group to the weird community for torture and execution. And, he is filming it, all the time with comments about American and Italian filmmaking and references to different films.
Elisa is taken, her hands nailed to a chair, sat at a banquet of all the strange deputies, the lady mayor explaining the situation to her.
However, with great exertion she is able to lift her hands and the nails, confronted and taught taunt Fabrizio (and the revelation that the seemingly tortured girl is his sister and also a mastermind of the film), is able to deal with the brother and sister, filming Fabrizio’s death.
And, during the final credits, there are all kinds of technical details where one can click like, make comments about how the film went, ending up time in cheek assessment of how this film worked and how it related to other “classics”.
