davidvmcgillivray-24-905811 Review of Crystal Eyes

Crystal Eyes (2017)

Hommage to giallo from Argentina is a camp extravaganza for a somewhat limited audience

[8/10 · 27 August 2018]

Ezequiel Endelman and Leandro Montejano are two talented new film-makers from Buenos Aires, who at London's Frightfest revealed their main passions - giallo and women in their 60s and 70s, preferably screaming. Their second feature, first to be shown internationally, was intended as one part of a web series but expanded. There's not much of a plot. Drug-addicted, bad-tempered model Alexis Carpenter gets her just deserts when she's accidentally burned during a catwalk show, a bravura sequence that sets the tone of the film. The media reports her death but soon afterwards a sinister masked "silueta", assumed to be the disfigured Alexis goes on a killing spree. A succession of murders ensues, but there's a twist ending befitting the film-makers' favourite Italian genre. Considering Endelman and Montejano claim to have had almost no budget, the art direction is sumptuous and the cast (mostly female) are dressed, coiffed and made-up to the nines. Rarely have we seen so many high heels click-clacking up and down floors and staircases. The "Suspiria"-style lighting is superb and the murders are staged with a flare that Argento probably would acknowledge. The violent music of Pablo Fuu enhances the visuals perfectly. The audience for this film is going to be niche. Considerable knowledge of classic Italian giallo is necessary and it will also help to be familiar with the cast, some of whom are movie veterans. Silvia Montanari made her screen debut in a Poe portmanteau, "Obras maestras del terror" (1960), starring the great Narciso Ibanez Menta. Someone calling him/herself Issis Trash also cuts a strikingly grotesque figure as the masked psycho. If all this sounds like your sort of thing, seek out this film as it does the festival circuit.