In Fabric

Billed as a comedy horror on Now-TV, hmm, not your usual fare, it's quite grown up stuff. Read a review when it came out and was quite intrigued, was hard to catch due to it's limited release but glad I caught up with this. There are horror elements, I loved the 70's lo-fi visuals that layer the atmosphere. One particular scene was both funny (peculiar-but a lot of this film is) and gross out. There is a sense of dread and foreboding pervading a lot of the film. There are some laugh out loud moments, particularly toward the end. I really enjoyed this, the performances were great, didn't take itself too seriously and was engaged throughout though I felt it faltered at the beginning of the 3rd act before picking up to a satisfying finale. Certainly not for everyone, a bit arthouse psychedelic, certainly not mainstream but for me an interesting, fun and different watch. Just don't expect a lot of sense and immerse yourself in it's stylish and assured bonkersness (if there is such a word).

The concept is interesting, but the film is really strange. It is not the regular horror film. It is artistic, and it is different.

Maybe it's unfair on the makers of the film to criticise it for not being what I was expecting, but In Fabric does set some expectations with how it is marketed and how the film starts. What I was expecting was some sort of Giallo-style headtrip of a film with supernatural elements, but with a backdrop of quirky 80s suburban England. A sort of Dario Argento meets Mike Leigh.

That's what I thought I was getting for the first 30 to 40 minutes of the film but then it seemed to lose its way. The atmosphere, the sympathetic but troubled protagonist played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the strange and perverted department store in an eccentric Thames Valley Town - I was loving it and couldn't wait to see what happened next. Then it just failed to pay off, carried on going, carried on failing to pay off, then half-heartedly tried to become a compendium story and meandered off into nowhere. There was a belated attempt to give it a kind of shocking climax but by then all atmosphere and interest had gone out of the film.

I find that when I try to describe the film, it sounds a lot better than it actually turned out on screen. The idea of this film is something I really wanted to see but it didn't deliver on its promise. A lot of interesting and unsettling ideas are just thrown together without tying it together into something that maintains the viewer's interest. It didn't have to make sense, it didn't have to explain, it didn't have to do what I was expecting. But it should have been better and it ended up being very disappointing.

In Fabric is quite an interesting, bizarre film. No need to type out a synopsis of the film, that's what IMDB is for. I watched the trailer for this and the close ups, strange audio, quick cut-shots really pulled me in to click play. I love a unique horror film that makes me think, and this movie definitely did that. Honestly I will say, if I hadn't read the first sentence of another review on here that had "consumerism" in it, I am not entirely certain I would have picked up on that theme until the very end of the movie.

Majority of the movie has you guessing if the dress is cursed or if it is some type of illusion that these characters are experiencing. A lot of it is very confusing, especially the lead sales character who we aren't sure what she is. Is it a cult? Is she a witch? Why is her being bald so important? I couldn't tell you. Her strange henchman that never says anything also threw me off. I assume he is the owner of the department store, but what was their relationship and what was he whispering to her that made her snap out of her current emotion? Also couldn't tell you.

I like the theme of consumerism is killing us all, controlling our minds and it works well I suppose. I think what turned me off was that the dress could fly, float, crawl, make rashes appear on the skin but without an explanation to of WHY. Again, was the department store a cult who put a spell on this fabric or dress? I don't know! Maybe I'm missing the mark here. I enjoyed it for the most part. It's odd, creepy, eerie, beautiful and whimsical. But I don't think it deserves another above a 6 or 7. Seems like the director/writer just wanted a fancy art movie so he could complain about capitalism.

Art for the sake of art...Not much substance... It' like a mixture of"1984" with "Rubber",with a try to imitate David Lynch,Dario Argento and Cronenberg all at once...The result is very artful,but fails to really engage and excite,like the films of abovementioned Masters...All in all 5 stars for a good visuals,acting,music. One time watch,doesn't go into the collection...