This poised feature debut from Nicolas Pesce announces a director who blends arthouse with horror to unnerving, elegant effect. Shot in striking black and white with a camera that drifts, almost languidly, to reveal hints of nightmarish violence, there is a chilly beauty to the austere backwoods America backdrop. A child, home-schooled in dissection and the mysteries of anatomy by her mother, puts her skills into practice when a violent tragedy rends her life apart. Later, as a lonely young adult, Francisca (Kika Magalhães) sets about creating her own family unit by – literally – carving chunks off someone else’s. The film loses some of its cruel precision and restraint in a third act that goes all out for shock value. As a result, the picture ends up more conventional and less intriguing than its early promise suggested.
