Piercing (2019)

Review

81min

Genre:     Horror, Thriller

Director:  Nicolas Pesce

Cast:       Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa…and more

Writers:   Nicolas Pesce and Ryû Murakami

-Synopsis-

When a family man leaves home on the false premise of a business trip to indulge in and mitigate his murderous fantasies, his plan is soon scuppered by a troubled prostitute and would-be victim with her own intentions, as he’s plunged into a surreal and confronting nightmare he can’t seem to control, in this adaptation of the dark Japanese novel by Ryu Murakami.

After capturing the attention of indie horror audiences with his deeply unsettling black & white 2016 debut ‘The Eyes of My Mother’, young filmmaker Nicolas Pesce plunges straight back into the deep dark recesses of childhood trauma, loneliness and human depravity, but in sleek retro Technicolor style. Adapting the macabre Japanese tale of human disconnect into a surreal Western psychological thriller dripping with sadomasochism, Pesce delivers a disturbing yet whimsical waking nightmare from which you won’t be able to turn your gaze, and confounds you with any notion of motivation . . . while continuing to raise questions about the writer/director’s own psyche.

Set in an unnamed modern city at an unspecified time, Christopher Abbott stars as soft-spoken husband and new father ‘Reed’, struggling to control his unsatiated thirst for murder and determined to keep his dark obsession away from his newborn and supportive wife ‘Mona’ (Laia Costa)—for which he hatches a meticulous plan with a hotel business trip as cover to murder an unsuspecting call girl. But the best-laid plans of mice and very sick men often go awry, as his dastardly scheme is undone by quirky and disturbed hooker ‘Jackie’ (Mia Wasikowska), a dark kindred spirit who unexpectedly plunges him into a surreal waking dream, confronting him with his very nature.

Let’s get something straight right off the bat, ‘Piercing’ is a sick little puppy of a movie, and deliberately so. A nihilistic, morally ambiguous film with subtle screwball comedy tendencies, stylishly designed to showcase the seemingly ingrained depravity of regular Joes and Janes you would never suspect . . . something Pesce seems obsessed with. It also manages to be simultaneously simplistic yet confounding in terms of narrative, unconcerned with any real character development—beyond some afterthought childhood trauma as psychedelic trip fodder—ultimately only focused on human nature and disturbing behaviour.

So to say the film is an acquired taste and will divide opinion is a huge understatement. For many ‘Pierced’ will prove a depraved, fetishist, morally ambiguous exercise in style over substance, which lacks true character development and barely makes sense. But it’s designed to be all those things, and makes no apology for it—a warped ode to depraved kindred souls who feed off each other’s darkness, and a nasty yet stylish little exploitation film which stays reverential to its influences and somehow just manages to work . . . without having to make sense.

For his second feature Pesce once again gives us no specific sense of time and place, but trades the timelessness of black & white for a full colour palette, featuring a production design reminiscent of the late 1960s to early 1970s which complements the film’s clear overtones of classic genre and exploitation cinema, with more than a hint of Giallo . . . minus a legitimate mystery element. He also cleverly overcomes budget limitations with the use of intricate models and miniatures to create the elegant minimalist cityscape, becoming a key style feature of the film.

Then there’s the soundtrack of course, an unexpectedly energetic, atmospheric and funky collection of tunes which follows the Quentin Tarantino handbook of mixing forgotten artist tracks with original score pieces from 60s and 70s exploitation cinema, in this case focusing heavily on Italian Giallo and films like Emilio Miraglia’s ‘The Red Queen Kills Seven Times’ and Dario Argento’s ‘Deep Red’, featuring artists like Bruno Nicolai, Piero Piccioni and Goblin —all of which might get your toes tappin’ in the most inappropriate circumstances.

In what is for the most part a macabre two-hander chamber piece, the film’s two leads do an admirable job without much to work with—and while Wasikowska remains a quirky and damaged enigma throughout, Christopher Abbott works wonders with his now trademark glassy-eyed look, hinting at the terror and mania bubbling up underneath his stoic exterior, and almost making his character as much a victim as he is a predator . . . almost.

It’s no surprise to us that many will find ‘Piercing’ a loathsome experience, but for us it boasts more than enough atmosphere, craftsmanship and style, and just about enough substance to keep our eyes glued to the screen, flirting with the notion of trauma, abuse and loneliness as ingredients in the makings of a psychopath—a recurring theme in Pesce’s brief career—but never really committing to that level of movie armchair psychiatry. When all else fails though, ‘Piercing’ is the equivalent of a cinematic car crash; you can’t look away, are ashamed to find it compelling . . . and boy does it command your attention.

Time will tell if Nicolas Pesce’s troubling preoccupations—at least artistically—continue to be reflected by his filmmaking career, and we’ll see if his cinematic style and voice translate into more mainstream horror fare next year, when he takes over the reins of the reboot/sequel of the American adaptation of the Japanese ‘Grudge’ horror series.

The Bottom Line…

A stylish, atmospheric and reverential but depraved, provocative and unapologetically amoral cinematic marmite concoction which will deeply divide opinion, Nicolas Pesce’s second feature comes from the same deep dark place as his first put proves more stylised, surreal and confounding—struggling to add substance to its considerable style but doing enough to create a compact, unconventional and morbidly fascinating little indie psychological thriller . . . which will be hard to ice pick out of your memory.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Hard Candy (2005)

When a 30-something photographer lures a young teenage girl to his home with impure intentions, he soon finds he bit off far more than he can chew, as being exposed becomes the least of his concerns in this disturbing and controversial indie thriller from the director of ’30 Days of Night‘ and ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’.

Directed by David Slade and starring Patrick Wilson, Ellen Page and Sandra Oh among others.

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