It's hard to know what to expect from a French 1960 horror/thriller, since there is very little material to compare it to. It makes this movie already an unique one and it's also quite fascinating to see how the French director Georges Franju dealt with the genre.
To be fair, it's hard to regard this movie as an horror now days. A dramatic mystery/thriller would be a better way to describe it, since the movie just doesn't feature any ghost like creatures or brutal killings. It's a movie that's more about its atmosphere and build-up, like you would also expect from a French movie. And also as you would expect, the movie does this quite well.
In its essence this is actually being quite a simplistic movie, that doesn't put too much complexity and distraction in its story. There are just an handful of characters and all of the events are all quite straight too the point, without any dancing around them. It's an approach that works for the movie its concept but at the same time I wished for some more depth and perhaps some more focus on the movie its other characters and to see things from their perspective. It would had definitely enhanced the movie its thriller aspects. To me, this was the movie its only flaw. But the movie remains above all things a beautifully done one and also an effective one, that uses only small touches to build up a certain atmosphere and tension for the movie, so well.
It's an unique watch, that also is simply a great and beautiful looking one.
8/10
Watch trailer
No comments: