Spitzendeckchen (2012) Reviews

• Nice idea, good execution

  Horst_In_Translation2015-07-01

  I am usually not too big on horror movies, but if there is some kind of invisible danger (like "Blair Witch Project too), I tend to enjoy these a lot. this is also the case for this 25-minute short movie here. It is about an evil flat. This flat lets the people who live inside age very quickly. Bad news for our protagonist here as she is about to move in at the start of the film. As the film goes on, there is a little lesson about morale (involving her ex-friend), but it's really all about her basically. I enjoyed this short film and only have minor criticisms. For example the aging makeup could have been better. Compared to the woman who lived in there before her and was actually played by an older actress, the main character just came short in terms of "old looks". Also I was struggling a bit with the way the apartment apparently changed her blood circulation. My initial guess was that the flat keeps her somewhat immortal and her veins are already ruptured, but got replace by strings that fulfill the same task. But the ending tells us otherwise. I could have done without her turning into a puppet sort of. The title could have been different too. It's obviously a contrast between something so harmless like lace doilies and the horror in this film, but lace doilies were really never particularly relevant in this film. But these are really just minor criticisms. The actors did fine and it's a nicely atmospheric little horror movie. Also this film is proof that you don't need great or very famous actor if you have a smart idea. Just like Dominik Hartel and Sarah Wassermair did in this Austrian production. I am certainly curious what projects they will be working on in the future.

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• Would have liked more of the horror of the situation to come but regardless it works well despite running a little longer than needed (SPOILERS)

  bob the moo2014-05-10

  If I am correct, the original title translates as Lace or Doilies but Vienna Waits for You works well too in this slightly comic horror. The plot sees a young woman looking for a flat – she had moved to Vienna to be with her boyfriend but it didn't work out and now she is on her own. The former tenant is keen to sign off the lease and head off around the world, despite being an old woman, and Anna is happy to move in and get the place clean and tidy. She scrubs the mildew, paints the walls and throws away the many porcelain figures and doilies – although as much as she does it seems all of them come back, covered in a thick layer of dust. As strange as it seems, this is not the weirdest thing to occur to Anna. From this point we understand the nature of the apartment and also the actions of the old woman at the start of the film, because this is a supernatural apartment where those that live there are robbed of their life force. It is an arrangement known to the landlord and indeed many of those involved – and it is a situation known by the tenants desperate to sign over to someone else while they still have some spark of life left. To ponder on the detail here, it is quite horrifying because essentially this is a human sacrifice and we understand this as Anna is robbed of the cute spark she opens the film with; this is added to by the idea of it occurring deliberately due to others – that someone let her condemn herself to this fate unknowingly. I found that quite chilling and, when the film lets you know this, it works very well. The problem is that it plays a little heavy with a comic touch. Okay so the doilies and sofa etc are inherently not the most serious, but I think it didn't quite get the balance right because it doesn't really let the darkness of what we see sink in. I still liked it for what it does but I would have preferred more of a gut-punch than the tickle that it often came with. It is also a little longer than it needed to be, with space in here to tighten it up, again for the sake of impact. The performances are good – Staduan is light when it matters and not later on, she would have benefited more from the true horror being allowed to sink in on her character more. Fennon is better at this and I liked his edge of acceptance but fear that he had throughout – he does his role because it must be done but he hates that it is this way. The production is of high standard, with the make-up in particular being pretty impressive and the delivery of the atmosphere in the flat also coming across well – it feels old and musty even through the screen. To me Spitzendeckchen would have benefited from a little more horror edge regarding the reality of the situation, but it still works nonetheless with a mix of slightly comic and dark horror. Professional and well done, despite my few reservations on tone and run-time.

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• LIKE A MODERN TWILIGHT ZONE EPISODE

  petros-762982019-04-25

  Its like my duty to write a review on this as there is none yet. A modern story on a house that feeds on youth, maybe a parable to Vienna or other big city lives gone wrong. Well made, acted, executed, on a nice idea and a modest budget. Certainly worth a try, i was thinking if there are more hidden gems out there we could make a modern collection of spooky stories like a 20th century Twilight Zone series....This could be one of the episodes...

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