Piercing

Set in what appears to be a New York City that looks like Singapore, a new father and husband on an out of town trip orders up a hooker to come to his hotel room in order to kill her with an ice pick. It doesn't work as planned. This movie has strange and unexplained elements like why is he planning to do this? Why is there a little tiny monster in the bathroom. Why does he react to sleeping pills strangely. Why does the hooker live in a veritable tiny palace. It's still a delightful horror.

"Piercing" is one of those movies as you watch you just follow along with the clever game of cat and mouse as it proves it's a crazy world with people as no one never really knows the clever cat and mouse games that some play. Reed(Chris Abbott) goes on a trip to a hotel room with a plan for murder, he's also hired an escort call girl named Jackie(Mia Wasikowska). However upon meeting one another things change and the balance and power of the game changes. Overall well done film of control and power, and arriving at your most brutal nightmare like thoughts. And it's just an okay film even though it's not everyone's cup of tea.

A darkly comic, unnerving and occasionally chilling depiction of the sadistic psychopath inside. A man named Reed (Christopher Abbott) is happily married; a wonderful family life with a newborn baby. It's made clear in the opening frames that he has a desire to hurt and to kill. He loves his family too much to exploit them so plans a pretend business trip in which he actually is going to rent a hotel room and book a prostitute to murder. A lady of the night named Jackie (Mia Wasikowska) is hired and upon a dispute the two have, she locks herself in the bathroom. What follows on from there is better left unsaid to provide the best viewing experience as I only knew up until this point going in and it's one hell of a twisted ride. First thing to say the two leads are fantastic! Wasikowska is terrific; she's created such an interesting film career starting with Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland to more adult darker territory with works such as Park Chan-Wook's Stoker and Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak. She portrays sexuality no matter how fetishistic with such dignity and delicacy that is really refreshing to see in modern cinema and she is a real talent; really fleshes out her characters. Abbott is also brilliant and portrays a man on the edge really well; confusion and morbid fascination all wrapped up in a neurotic package. It's a slow burning film and definately gets better on more watches; becoming even funnier once the intense first watch is complete and you know what is to happen. There is a certain drug influenced scene that genuinely made my skin crawl and is really creepy. The soundtrack is great and writer/Director Nicholas Pesce conjures a very taut atmosphere and adapts the material well from Ryu Murakami's novel of the same name. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea and I'm sure the ending will frustrate some; it's pretty abrupt and I wasn't sure about it upon first watch but it makes more sense on a second watch. Overall, it will divide opinion but I think it's pretty damn good and worth a watch for those intrigued by darker material

This is a pretty solid little thriller/horror flick. It has enough disturbing imagery and uncomfortable themes to keep even the most hardened of genre-fans entertained and captivated from start to finish. It boasts some solid performances and some inspired direction, and in the end, it provides a creepy enough atmosphere for me to recommend it to people I know are horror fans.

This certainly isn't horrific, and neither is it thrilling as billed.

It is a bland attempt to create some kind of arty suspense film that fails.

The 'story' (for what it is) is just a series of 'things' that happen that have no context or sense with no relation to each other apart from being in the same space.

Going by the end credits this film has a massive crew - for what I have no idea.

In the end, it became tedious and intensely boring to watch.

One to miss.