Alleluia - Ein mörderisches Paar

Inspired by a real couple, this rather ghastly horror depicts the lives of "Michel" (Laurent Lucas) and "Gloria" (Lola Dueñas). Initially they just hookup for some unbridled passion. Now he has an habit of imitating the Black Widow spider when he's done, but she manages to convince him that she would make for a far better procurement assistant. What now ensues are an increasingly graphic and outlandish series of crimes as a selection of vulnerable women fall prey to their antics. What nobody quite plans for, though, is that jealousy is going to rear it's ugly head. She is falling in love, he is not. A clash is looming, and a bloody and violent one at that. It starts off strongly this, with a degree of palpable menace that is intriguing to watch. Sadly, though, neither the acting nor the writing can sustain the sense of threat and the scenarios become a little too predictable, melodramatic even. By the last twenty minutes, the hysteria begins to grate and I sort of lost interest. At times there is some potently grim humour, and do keep an eye on the superior performance from Héléna Noguerra as "Solange" but otherwise, this is all just a bit underwhelming.

Lola Dueñas is spellbinding to watch here, as fated lover Gloria. And despite the dark, heavy subject matter, I still find Alléluia to be a beautiful, hypnotic and romantic film. And Vincent Cahay's classic and experimental soundtrack is sublime.

Expertly crafted.

So now and then Belgium do come forward with a horror flick. This one here is filed under horror but it isn't your usual horror, and if I say, Fabrice du Welz as director it will ring a bell for those geeks out there. Calvaire (2004) was a well made horror from this director and also not for everyone.

Alléluia is losely based on the Lonely Hearts Killers Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck who searched for loneley women to seduce them and finally kill them. It's a bit of the same here. Gloria (Lola Dueñas) is a lonely woman with a kid searching for the real one. When she comes across Michel Bellmer (Laurent Lucas also in controversial Raw (2017)) she falls in love with him and adores him a bit too much. He's a womanizer but she can live with that she thinks and they start a relation only to go badly wrong due Gloria being jealous Michel making love to the women.

There's a lot of characterization taking place so the real action or horror isn't the main part in this story. Still there are killings and it's in that part that some are offended because it's eldery women who are seduced. For those searching for a next Clavaire this will not deliver but those who can take a story with a few bloody moments it will be your thing. Even as you have to wait over 35 minutes before the first killing appears it never becomes boring at all.

Gore 0,5/5 Nudity 1,5/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

I stumbled across this movie without knowing much about it, only that it was supposed to be disturbing. In that regard it most definitely disappointed me, but I still found it worth watching. There were a few death scenes, and some other halfway disturbing shots, but nothing to write home about as far as shocking goes. The premise is fairly interesting and the style of the movie is spot on, I enjoyed the characters quite a bit and the soundtrack was fantastic, but it felt like it was missing something to me. It's hard to put my finger on it, but it left me kind of wanting more, and it just never truly delivered the way I thought it should. Still worth the watch I would say.

Fabrice du Welz's film 'Alleluia' could be described as a hybrid true-story/horror/comedy film, and you don't get many of those. A lonely woman hooks up with a con-man: in theory, they'll make their fortune together, but his business is the seduction of his victims (indeed, that was how he met his partner) but she is pathologically jealous of each of their supposed marks. Cue some brutal scenes, and some quite imaginative, effective and genuinely portrayals of what it is like both inside and outside of her head. As for him, he shrugs his shoulders each time a con-trick ends in an unwanted early bloodbath, and moves onto the next target. It's clever, but the protagonists are so crazed, and so devoid of anything resembling a conventional moral compass, that it's hard to feel too sympathetic or involved. But the disastrous duo are at least fresh on our screens, like Bonnie and Clyde in the hall of mirrors.