Alléluia

Like the titles says the movie is the Belgian version of Ripstein's Profundo carmesí (Deep red) with more or less minor differences. Still worth watching but nothing extraordinarily original if you have watched Ripstein's bizarre and grotesque 1996 movie.

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.

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

This is quite a raw film. I'm going to say little so to avoid the main shocks. It kind of twists the genre a little as we see one woman fall in love obsessively with an amoral man out to cheat woman out of money. He has a voracious sexual appetite, and this is a major arc in this film, but how does he and his new lover balance it all out.

It's dark, it's highly violent and very cynical. It's as much horror as it is a thriller. You won't be leaving this film with a spring in your step.

The acting is fabulous by our main leads (actually by everyone in it), and they really unsettle you. The camera work is claustrophobic and dark, avoiding anything flashy. It adds to the suffering nature of the film.

This isn't for everyone, you will need a strong stomach for this one. If you are interested in dark extreme cinema, then this could be for your. For the rest, I'd say you better check out what exactly it is before you go in, as I wouldn't be surprised if you walk out during the movie.