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Posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 21:29:43 GMT by: quietearth
Posted under: movie review horror

Year: 2009
Directors: Pearry Reginald Teo
Writers: Pearry Reginald Teo & Stephanie Joyce
IMDB: link
Trailer: link
Review by: quietearth
Rating: 7 out of 10

Necromentia has one of the most surreal, f'ed up moments in film I have ever seen. It's a bouncy ball sing-along song passed to Pearry from Satan himself, and as the song literally comes around the corner, it brings the nightmares with it. While pondering it, the only thing I could think to compare it to was Dahmer trepaning a young Asian boy who escaped and was found dazed and half naked by the cops. Dahmer somehow convinced the police it was a lover's quarrel while blood flowed from the boy's head, and later proceeded to store the young man in his fridge. The clip of this moment will be watched over and over on youtube, it's that twisted.

Yes, Pearry Teo is much loved around these parts, and while many may have disliked Gene Generation, we loved this film and you must admit, the man is capable of that singular vision only found in the best genre filmmakers. But the film still had it's faults. Luckily, some of the material was so thoroughly original that the good far outweighed the bad.

I'll start with the bad. Some thunder effects in the background, corny. A small portion of the music, cliche. A tired overuse of the gas mask and some shaky camera music video moments. The good? The monster design, done by Pearry himself. The story and dialogue? Much better than his last output. And then there's fantastic production design with props from a funhouse of madness procured in someone's sick dreams, all seen through the sheen of German expressionism.

With a scattered narrative based on Pearry's research of dementia, the film starts with Hagen, who we think is our main character, cleaning the body of his dead lover. He caresses her rotting skin as he consoles, waiting for her to keep her promise and return from the dead. He leans down and passionately kisses her, then pulls out the pliers to do God knows what. The camera didn't show us. He's madly in love, and through this romance, which is the backbone of our story, hell itself is opened. But it's not the one from the Bible or Hellraiser, but "a boring place with no beginning, and no end."

Necromentia explores the background of this romance and it's effects on those involved. What starts with desire turns into revenge, leading to the etch-a-sketching of a gateway to hell into the back of one our lucky characters. But as I said, hell is not what we think.

There's much more to be explored like one of my favorites, a pigheaded monster wrapped in barb-wire. Using a simple theme, this flick is labyrinthine in its manipulation and character exploration and keeps us guessing. And while I normally would give this a 6 for its flaws, its moments of brilliance outshine the prosaic. Plus, my friends loved it.

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