Blackaria (2010)

Here's a short review, but it's a move you have to see instead of reading this silly text!

A couple of days ago I reviewed François Gaillard and Christophe Robin's Last Caress, and I was very impressed. Well, until I saw Blackaria - and then I got even more impressed! What we have here is a full-blown, story-wise, perfect tribute to an Italian giallo. The big and major difference between this and Last Caress is that Blackaria looks cheaper - but also feels more like a real movie and not just a series of very cool murder-sequences stitched together with a very thin, red thread of pretend-o-story.

A young woman is having visions and dreams of people - and herself getting killed by a wild-eyed woman. She's convinced she will be the last victim when the killer appears in real life, slashing her way through the cast!

That's it. I don't want to write more, but the story is actually more complex than this with some excellent touches of Dario Argento, Brian De Palma and mindfuck-thrillers like Roman Polanski's Repulsion and The Tenant. The absence of a nice country villa and apartments instead makes it looks cheaper, plus the photography has not the same sharpness - could be shot on DV and the other one is shot in HD? What makes it strong is the wonderful, simple script with the most necessary. No silly storylines of padding or boring romance.

Interesting enough I think the acting is better in this film than Last Caress, it feels more natural and I guess it's because there's more to work with for the actors. The woman playing the killer looks like a fucked-up, crazy, Daria Nicolodi and her killer-look is absolutely fabulous! They couldn't have done it better in seventies!

Blackaria also boasts a lot of violent, graphic killings. Most of them echoes Lucio Fulci with extreme nastiness (including, of course, a slit eye and even some violence against a breast). But the surroundings, the set-ups, feels a lot more like Argento. The effects also look very good, like from the golden age of gialli, filmed with style and talent.

Both Last Caress and Blackaria is extremely good and well-made tributes to our favourite genre, and the DVD release from Njuta Films is a MUST! You can buy it a Diabolik DVD for example, if you live outside Sweden. And yes, there's English subs!