By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Peter Strickland
Starring: Caroline Catz | Gwendoline Christie | Julian Barratt | Marianne Jean-Baptiste | Sidse Babett Knudsen
Country: united_kingdom
Year: 2019
Running time: 118
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7464188/reference
Brett says: “While I tend to label this as a “must watch” it might be more accurately described as “I am so fortunate to know this movie exists.” Not a piece that will tickle everyone’s fancy, director of the strange and off-center realm of filmmaking Peter Strickland (THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO) presents an absurdist comedy-horror that is compelling in its levels of ridiculousness. The film believes in itself and takes itself so seriously, which is the defining element of its successful comic prowess. Meanwhile, the sublime and creepy still somehow manage to work amid the absurdity in a way that helps define the piece as something beyond just an empty comedy. In essence, the film’s plot could be described as “spirit-possessed clothing with a vendetta,” but the redeeming quality to this madness is the film’s methodology and deliberateness. It has a feel of SUSPIRIA set in a department store, yet inserts intentional and well-crafted B-level bonkers moments with a dead pan tone to add another dimension.”
Chris says: “Peter Strickland’s comic horror film about a red dress that attacks and murders people is decidedly NOT a safe follow-up to his great S&M love story THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY. Diving even deeper into a Giallo-inspired milieu that appears as if frozen in time for a couple of decades, IN FABRIC has mad fun satirizing middle class fashion and consumer aesthetics to near-absurdity, balancing Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s sensible bank teller against a gallery of grotesques led by the inimitable department store clerk Miss Luckmoore (Strickland regular Fatma Mohamed). Although uneven (it really meanders after it loses one of its main characters) and a bit silly at times (I blame producer Ben Wheatley), whenever it’s good, it’s absolutely sublime, fully ensconcing the viewer within its peculiar, often nightmarish, fun-house-mirror world.
“(screened at IFF Boston 2019)”
Julie says: “This was an odd movie but worth seeing ! You just had to laugh at some of the black horror / comedy?”