Valeria
2017 · 10m · USA
Directed by Erin Vassilopoulos
Genres: drama, horror, mystery
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
After a partial face transplant, Eva becomes obsessed with finding out who her donor was. Symptoms surface, a strange house pulls her in, and the connection deepens past anything medical.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Face-transplant horror is usually an excuse for prosthetics; Vassilopoulos uses it as an excuse for stillness. That inversion is what makes it worth watching.
Underplayed body horror is the more sophisticated mode, and Eyes Without a Face filtered through Hadzihalilovic's cold pastels is exactly the right ancestry for face-transplant material. Strong pull.
A face-transplant body-horror played in restrained 35mm, with the donor obsession rendered through cold socialite mise-en-scene rather than gore, is a confident artistic choice. Vassilopoulos is one to watch.
Reviews
Built somewhat like a horror film but more stylish and restrained.