Alléluia

Is this an Original story? I don't think so Because is very similar to the Mexican Movie "PROFUNDO CARMESI"(1996), at the same time this film re-tells the story of "THE LONELY HEARTS KILLERS" (1969), a famous couple of murderers who made victims of lonely and wealthy widows in the USA.

Gloria (Lola Dueñas) is a rotund and passionate nurse who knows handsome gigolo Michel (Laurent Lucas) and falls for him immediately. She abandons her children and follows the man in spite of his way of living. Together they will scheme to swindle and murder women who look for love and companions.

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.

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.

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.

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.