Romula Garay sympathizes with the "Me To" movement
Amyulite - slowness and immature ideas undermine terror
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We return to the same equation in horror cinema, an abandoned or isolated house, or it does not matter where it is located, but what is important is that it contains a secret. And this secret is in the attic. Sometimes a filmmaker can use the same equation 100 times, if he has dozens of ideas in his mind.
Dozens of ideas do not matter, but what matters is how he uses them to create the desired effect on the human psyche and make the film an unforgettable experience. The other way is to present the same previously tried ideas, but in a new way that we have not seen before.
Exactly as Ari Ester did in Hereditary when he turned the idea of Rosemary's 1968 on its head. It's the exact same idea, but it's presented in a new way. Or as Esther himself did when he turned the idea for The Wicker Man in 1973 to Robin Hardy in his movie Midsommar last year.
We return to the House of Horrors and the Secrets of the Attic, in Amulet, the “Mantra” there are conflicting ideas, all good, but director Romula Garay, an English actress in her first directing experience, does not seem to improve the way she mixes ideas with the topic that she wants to put forward through the film.
The film consists of two timelines, each with a heart-wrenching story, and excessively borrowed art from horror films of houses haunted by demons and evil spirits. Garay offers something promising, although he does not appear mature in terms of ideas and at the same time confusing, as the viewer has to construct the two stories in the lines in his mind.
Garay also blends ideas from Body Horror, a sub-trend in horror cinema related to grossly disfiguring bodies, pioneered by Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg. It reflects that the film director is better familiar with horror styles than she is the writer of a script or a story.
The crew of the characters in "Amiolite" Tomas (Romanian Alec Cicarino), who is in the first timeline (retrospective scenes), is led by a former soldier with deep psychological wounds from the past, who spent him in a war that may be civil on the European continent, and is often a reference to the Balkan war that dismantled Yugoslavia Previous.
We see him in a forest two days away from the nearest town doing a trivial job. Then suddenly Miriam (Greek Angelica Papulia) interferes with him in his hut. The woman appears frightened and lost, and Tommas, who appears to be fighting evil desires, tries to calm her and make her feel safe. One day, Tomaz gives her a spell and finds her buried in the woods, telling Miriam that it will protect her from evils.
In the main story or second timeline, we see Tomasz in London in menial jobs until a fire takes him out of his shelter and places him at the mercy of Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton). The nun offers to stay with a woman in a semi-dilapidated house in exchange for carrying out maintenance tasks.
The owner of the house is the shy Magda (Swiss Carla Goree), who takes care of her isolated sick mother who never stops screaming in the attic, and cooks for Tomaz meals of meat. Weird things start to happen, what's the story of the horribly neglected bathroom problem? What's this toilet-half-bat-half-rat? What is the story of the house and who lived in it before tomorrow, and why did the owners leave the house and leave their belongings in it?
Garay answers all the questions to varying degrees, and switches her priorities in the narration, depending on the strength of the relationship between Tommas and Magda, but she does it all very slowly that makes horror film fans wonder if what they are watching is drama or horror?
The reason for the slowness is Garay's insistence on introducing the topic she wants to raise, and it reflects her sympathy for the "Me To" movement, which arose as a response to the scandal of former filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, accused of sexually exploiting women working with him.
Garay mixes very poorly with bizarre romantic scenes and scenes that contain symbols of myths that are completely meaningless. However, the movie in general is not bad.
Garay rewards the viewer, who might be slowing her movie, by surprisingly the ending scene, which reveals the secret, and we pause here. If we make a comparison between the aforementioned "Hereditary" movie and "Amiolite", we find that both are slow in narration, and there is a difference.
Esther, director of the first, presents a mysterious idea that will be fully revealed in the last scene, and all he does is constantly capture the viewer's attention by placing small surprises and high-quality artistry, depending on the low light. And all of Astra's talk shows, or horror, are connected to the main idea of the movie, no single shot looks like it is from another movie.
We come to Amulet, Garay has a haunted house, but she does not go in the direction of scaring the viewer, because her topic is about the evil man who exploits the woman and how she punishes him. This is why there are two immature romantic relationships between Tomas and Miriam in the first timeline, and Tommas and Magda in the second line.
In the first line there is no horror, but there is one scene that shows what Tommas did to Myriam to deserve punishment in the second line. In the second line, the romantic relationship does not develop, but rather turns into an obsession on the part of Tomasz Magda, who decides to save her from the clutches of the Great Satan or the evil inherent in the house.
Technically, Garay's film is not based on dark scenes, but rather on the sickening scenes of the old woman in the attic and the creatures emerging from her body.
In the scene of the discovery of the secret, and exactly as it happened in Hereditary, Tomaz here casts a look at the form of the world of demons, in the first film the shot was not devoid of complete darkness in which we see a scene that sends horror into the scenes, but here we see a creature that we know is a woman who does not appear even a demon And the background is pink, and the whole scene is more like a children's play, or perhaps a crazy fantasy of a teenage girl, and the scene does not match the horror that preceded it minutes ago.
Perhaps Garay's goal was not so much to awe as to highlight her desire to take away the rights of wronged men from oppressive men. This movie belongs to more artistic than popular horror cinema.
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Garay's goal is not to horrify, but to highlight her desire to take away the rights of wronged men from oppressive men.
A filmmaker can use the same equation 100 times if he has dozens of ideas in his mind.
The movie belongs to more artistic than popular horror cinema.