Rating: 3/5
We join a lingerie photoshoot. Sylvia robes up. David congratulates her on the shoot and assigns her to an upcoming music video called “Blades.” An older man calls Alex, the assistant, asking for a date with Sylvia. Alex tries to decline, but the man threatens to call the police.
The models attend a house party at Alex’s and relax in a hot tub. The older man joins them, jumping on Syliva. The other models tell Sylvia that he’s an important friend and not to worry. She fights him off, but the other models hold her down while the older man SAs her. Sylvia escapes and drives off in Alex’s 1987 Autobianchi Y10.
Alex meets with David, who shows Alex a strange blade for the upcoming music video. Alex claims Sylvia disappeared, so David tries to do the video without her. During the shoot (which is to Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Warriors of the Wasteland”), Police Lieutenant Brandam speaks with Alex about his car, which police discovered in a ditch. The gas tank exploded, and they found the charred remains of someone in the driver’s seat. Alex gives Brandam the details but omits the presence of the older man.
What happened to Sylvia? Was this an accident, or is this part of an elaborate scheme? I mean, probably the latter, right? When Melanie takes Syliva’s place in the shoot, she finds herself taking over Syliva’s life. Meanwhile, the other models start dying under mysterious circumstances.
The score is so good — horny guitar and lurid synths for days. The soundtrack picks are also pretty stellar. I’d never heard “Certain Things Are Likely” by Kissing the Pink, but it’s a jam. It pivots mid-movie to a Psycho riff that I’m ambivalent about, but thankfully it’s used sparingly.
The movie features several computer shots, from Alex playing something called “Porno Game” to forensic scientists recreating Sylvia’s skull.
The film feels like it’s going for a Tony Scott slo-mo fest. Director Dario Piana had worked in commercials before this, so the highly stylized aesthetic makes sense. I don’t know how much it adds beyond verisimilitude for the video shoots—the same aesthetic applied to a lingerie shoot and putting sheets on a bed is pretty funny—but beautiful cinematography helps the slasher go down.
Florence Guérin