Well, this movie gave me nightmares, so that's a reason to review it.
Euridice BA 2037 is a Greek art film retelling the story of Euridice--as you might expect. So we follow Euridice as she sits trapped in her apartment (Apartment BA 2037), dealing with the bureaucracy of a moving company for a transfer that will never come. A bunch of hippies sometimes open her windows to throw garbage at her and poke her with sticks. She complains to her boyfriend that she can't remember if she's been waiting for the moving trucks for five days or five years; shortly thereafter she begins receiving mysterious calls from a man who claims to have once been her lover. She is also haunted by creepy shadowy figures that probe around at her windows and occasionally-transparent walls. These shadow-figures also run their hands over her sheets when she's sleeping. When she's not trying to figure out her move, she's inhaling vomit out of the toilet, or making her toy dolls fuck each other before biting their plastic dicks off. It may all be tied up in the mysterious death of her friend Vera. In the end we find out that the man who has been calling Euridice is actually her boyfriend from the beginning, because this is an art film and we need a mindfuck ending.
Hm...that all sounds pretty strange. I'm sure it has something to do with the original myth of Euridice. Euridice was the wife of Orpheus, son of Morpheus the dream-god; a friend of Orpheus' decided to hit on her, and when she ran away from him she stepped on a snake, which killed her. Orpheus voyaged into the Underworld to rescue her and played a song that charmed Hades and Persephone into agreeing to let her go...but only under the condition that he not turn back as he ascended out of the Underworld. Orpheus was nearly back to the surface when he had a last-minute doubt that Euridice was following him, and when he looked back and saw her, she was sucked back into Hell, this time permanently.
...okay, so basically they took the story of "woman is in Hell" and went with that. That's cool, even ignoring the fact that the Greek Underworld wasn't really Hell the way the Judeo-Christian world knows it. And Hell this is indeed. I can't claim to understand all of the symbolism in this movie--frankly, I'm a little symbolism'd out at this point--but let's just say for now that there's plenty of terrifying and Freudian bullshit to go around. The creepy figures that stalk Euridice steer this movie straight into horror territory, but the focus is so clearly on the
And of course there is the sexual imagery. An important letter concerning Euridice's transfer comes when she's in the shower, and so our first glimpse of her admittedly beautiful body is when she is caught in the throes of panic. This sets the movie's habit of undercutting eroticism with something unsettling--hey, like a lot of these art films! The doll sex scene is what really sold me. They actually had to mold and cast a tiny little hard-on for the baby doll they use. This is the first movie I've seen that contains a doll-castration; I hope many more follow.
I think I like art films the best when I can riff them. It's pretty hilarious when I get to make a Telephone Book joke: the first words out of my mouth when I realized the nature of Euridice's phone call were "I'd like to talk to you very seriously for a moment, about your beautiful tits." For all the chills it sent up my spine, Euridice BA 2037 is prime material for riffing just because, like a lot of art films, it takes itself a bit too seriously at times. It is also, like a lot of art films, tremendously boring at stretches. I loved it all the same.
And it did give me nightmares! I watched this movie twice, taking on a second viewing because I barely remembered my first. After the initial viewing I had a dream about those hippies from the beginning breaking into my house and poking me and my family with sticks, and throwing garbage at us. That's why I ended up bothering with a second viewing in the first place. I guess there's some imagery that just sticks with you. Euridice BA 2037, for all its faults, contains many such images, and while I can't recommend it wholeheartedly, I do think it's something you should cross off if you like your horror movies leaning to the artsy side. Carnival of Souls fans take note!
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