Marie, a fine and committed athlete, has been overdoing it, with the result that she needs to take an urgent rest. Determined to look at the bright side, she goes to parties, eats rich food and, especially, makes sweet sweet love to her new boyfriend Bobby, an archer. Indeed, things work out so well with Bobby that she moves into his apartment, on Antwerp's Left Bank. Gradually she develops an interest in the history of the apartment, which, strangely, involves the unexplained disappearance of a former tenant...
"Linkeroever" is a horror movie, and a good one at that : well-written, well-acted (in fact, very well-acted), well-filmed and well-directed. It is also a subtle one, which requires careful attention to detail : a little sentence here, a barely glimpsed photograph or newspaper title there. The symbolism too is rich and subtle, but I've got a little clue for you, to wit the word "chtonic"...
It all ends in one of the most jaw-dropping "What did I just see ?!!" endings in modern horror movies. If you have been paying close attention the finale will not come entirely from the planet Jupiter, but even then it's a beauty.
The movie can also be read in another way, as a psychological study of the mental horrors which befall a well-trained, committed athlete after running into a serious medical problem. For many athletes such a reverse can mean not only a financial setback plus a loss of a beloved career, but even a loss of identity, of self. In a certain sense Marie is disintegrating before our very eyes, turning into a pain-crippled shade of her former self...
"Linkeroever" is not a perfect movie ; for instance, it might have been wise to pay a little more time and attention to Bobby's environment of friends, family, fellow archers. But it's certainly an accomplished and rewarding one. People interested in the movie's importance and genealogy can do worse than look at a recent Flemish documentary called "Forgotten scares". (Wrote a small review there too.)
"Linkeroever" is a horror movie, and a good one at that : well-written, well-acted (in fact, very well-acted), well-filmed and well-directed. It is also a subtle one, which requires careful attention to detail : a little sentence here, a barely glimpsed photograph or newspaper title there. The symbolism too is rich and subtle, but I've got a little clue for you, to wit the word "chtonic"...
It all ends in one of the most jaw-dropping "What did I just see ?!!" endings in modern horror movies. If you have been paying close attention the finale will not come entirely from the planet Jupiter, but even then it's a beauty.
The movie can also be read in another way, as a psychological study of the mental horrors which befall a well-trained, committed athlete after running into a serious medical problem. For many athletes such a reverse can mean not only a financial setback plus a loss of a beloved career, but even a loss of identity, of self. In a certain sense Marie is disintegrating before our very eyes, turning into a pain-crippled shade of her former self...
"Linkeroever" is not a perfect movie ; for instance, it might have been wise to pay a little more time and attention to Bobby's environment of friends, family, fellow archers. But it's certainly an accomplished and rewarding one. People interested in the movie's importance and genealogy can do worse than look at a recent Flemish documentary called "Forgotten scares". (Wrote a small review there too.)