Stiletto-sharp and as precise as a stocking seam, Anna Biller’s terrific homage to campy 1960s and 70s sexploitation horror movies is a riot of synthetic hair and vampy overacting. Biller, who designed the costumes and sets as well as writing, directing, editing and producing, has immersed herself in the Beyond the Valley of the Dolls-meets-Hammer psychological-shocker aesthetic. Hers is a witty and playful approach, but as with her 2007 film Viva – a lascivious, early 70s B-movie take on the sexual revolution – Biller lovingly recreates the film-making of the era with a fan’s obsession to detail. As such, it reminded me of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s giallo pastiche, Amer: both pictures are deliciously lurid but wholly serious in their appreciation of the genre they evoke.
Biller cites George Romero’s Season of the Witch and the British picture Horror Hotel as direct thematic influences, but for the look of the film – saturated colours as deep and luxurious as shag-pile carpet – she turned to Hollywood Technicolor movies, in particular those of Hitchcock, for inspiration. Shot on 35mm rather than digital, the film captures the seductive, high-contrast, glamorous artificiality of the era.
Biller even recreates the dubious sexual politics of the time, albeit with one elegantly raised eyebrow. Her central character, Elaine (Samantha Robinson), is a needy narcissist. She role-plays the purring, appeasing fantasy-woman to lure her male victims, but disposes of them ruthlessly when they don’t live up to her expectations. Elaine is a witch who uses potions and charms in her quest for the perfect man, with frequently messy results. Biller mischievously juxtaposes images that suggest femininity and domesticity with shots that scream of violence – she cuts from a spade digging a shallow grave to a spoon delving into a chocolate cake, from a bloody suicide to a raspberry-topped cheesecake. The brash, sexy score – a combination of recycled soundtracks from Ennio Morricone and others, and music written by the multi-talented Biller – is spot on. And even if the climax doesn’t quite have the kick we might hope for, cult status surely awaits this bewitching oddity.
