31 Days of Halloween: Luz

 2018, Tilman Singer (The Events at Mr. Yamamoto's Alpine Residence) -- download

Season of the WTF continues with this German flick that is pretty apparent it was the director's film school thesis as it is equal parts pretentious as Hell, and amateurish, but not always in a bad way. Of course, critics somewhat liked it, perhaps seeing more of his future potential or the sincerity the movie is done with, rather than its lack of polish.

Luz walks into a ... place. We are supposed to believe it is a police station, but there is nothing official about it, from the almost mute inattentive man at reception to the total lack of activity to the interview room that looks more like a school viewing room than something in a police station. But Luz walks in, confesses to something, and has to have a psychiatrist brought in to assist.

Said psychiatrist is sitting in a grotty little bar, with only one other patron, a randy disheveled woman who buys him drinks (what were they? cloudy drink has sugar added, is added to blue drink and POOF its now pink) and tells him a tale of a disturbed experience in a Chillean boarding school involving abusive priests and possible demonic possession. And then she drags him into the bathroom stall to ... possess him and leave behind the damaged body of the woman.

Later, in the interview auditorium, there is a novel act played out, given the movie's lack of budget, where the psychiatrist hypnotizes Luz, and sets up a play-taxi cab for her to sit in. Under his spell, she tells her tale of having picked up the woman from the bar, in her cab, and the two recognize each other from Chile, from the boarding school they attended.

Ahh, so the demon is following Luz for some reason, some connection from the past, some eerie thing that keeps the bond across years and distance. But what is it?

Should we expect explanation? Maybe. What we get instead is art house mania, that at times felt more like horror movie via grainy film and interpretive dance. There is requisite gore, and scary scenes, but in a movie that is just over an hour, there is no real story. I could see potential in what Singer may be trying to do, but really, I never bought into it. It was weird for weird's sake, that could have communicated more, but didn't really want to.