BARE BONES: HOUSEWIFE (2017)

HOUSEWIFE (2017)

Second film from Baskin writer/director Can Evrenol tells the story of Holly (Clémentine Poidatz), who as a child, witnessed the brutal murder of her sister and father by her mentally disturbed mother (Defne Halman). Now an adult, Holly is married to an author/artist (Ali Aksöz), though is still so haunted by visions of that night, that she can’t use a toilet, which is where she saw her sister drowned. When Holly is introduced to the charismatic leader (David Sakurai) of an apocalyptic cult, the lines between nightmare and reality really start to blur.

As co-written, with Cem Özüduru and directed by Everol, Housewife can be summed up as Lords of Salem meets Hereditary, even though initially released in Turkish cinemas eight months before the latter. The flick shares some of Baskin’s flaws, in that the characters aren’t all that endearing, not even Holly, and there really isn’t much of a narrative story to follow once we get the gruesome set-up. There are some disturbing images and some brutal violence, but it’s not enough to at least keep our attention as did his continually disturbing previous film. In fact it’s kind of dull at times and really doesn’t reach Baskin levels of freakishness until it’s final ten minutes and at that point, it’s too little and too late to save it. Everol can certainly create some unnerving imagery and give one the creeps, but if he ever learns to add some dramatic intensity and emotional involvement to one of his films, he’d really have something. Watchable as a curiosity, but somewhat tedious despite being a scant 82 minutes. Even when it does finally crank things up, it reminds you of other, better movies.

-MonsterZero NJ