★ 7 / 10
Unconventional and mysterious, made with an admirable independent
micar6
Unconventional and mysterious, made with an admirable independent vision. This is a movie that follows it's own rules, and challenges the viewer to come along…
Unconventional and mysterious, made with an admirable independent vision. This is a movie that follows it's own rules, and challenges the viewer to come along for the ride. It's clearly not for everyone. But it works as an open-ended fable set in Japan with Swedish characters. And how often can you say that?
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★ 10 / 10
A Good Spooky Movie For Autumn
pjechorin
If you are looking for a slow burn spooky film set in Tokyo for pre-Halloween chills then this is for you! Amazingly well written, directed and generally…
If you are looking for a slow burn spooky film set in Tokyo for pre-Halloween chills then this is for you! Amazingly well written, directed and generally crafted by John Cairns, Effigy explores alienation and fantasy fulfilment as a modern fairytale for adults. Set in Tokyo an incredibly attractive young translator (Camilla Ståhl) confronts insanity in the writings of her employer's recently deceased son only to slowly unravel herself. This film is great for dark and rainy autumn evenings while you are the mood for something just for yourself or a certain someone of a similar mindset.Be wary, the film becomes strong stylistic turn for art house cinema about midway through and the ending maybe disturbing for some! If you are looking for a popcorn thriller, give this one a miss. But if you want to see someone descend into murderous madness with little dialogue, a strong cinematic score and unsettling visuals, then you might enjoy this.
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★ 9 / 10
Atmospheric, Gritty, and Poetic. Look at the Written Reviews, not the Star Rating
gregorykw
I'm not sure who is adding all the negative star ratings and if they have actually seen the movie and genuinely didn't like it or are just trolling, but as…
I'm not sure who is adding all the negative star ratings and if they have actually seen the movie and genuinely didn't like it or are just trolling, but as with most of the other people who actually wrote reviews, I would definitely recommend watching this film if you like movies that are dark, highly-atmospheric, and artistic slow-burn suspense (almost a sort of mythic-Japanese-metropolitan-noir type feeling. Subtle, dark-fantasy cyberpunk, maybe).I don't usually watch horror movies, but I found this movie highly enjoyable because it presented an atmospheric, artistic and motif-heavy exploration of the horrors of living in a soulless metropolis full of lost people, without resorting to jump scares and chases scenes. If you want "I'm scared to turn out the lights after watching this" type J-Horror, this ain't it. If you want a thoughtful meditation on the kind of casual cruelty and isolation that can characterize modern life in a mega-city, seen through a rich and immersive horror-type-lens that elevates the mundane and mixes it with the mythic, this is the movie for you.Effigy is, on the surface, a simple story about a woman's gradual mental/moral spiraling. Much of the runtime is spent on atmospheric thematic development rather than detailed or dramatic plot points. The slow-burn is kept from being boring, however, both through the immersive visuals and sound, and, even more so, through the layering of symbols, analogies, motifs, and myths on top of the base storyline.Imagine a dark version of "Drive My Car," but instead of 3-hours of pretentious monotone reading of Chekhov lines that are hard to understand out of context, it layers in an easily accessible Hans Christian Andersen-type haunting fairy-tale on top of the main story. This, combined with repeating visual motifs, ties things together and creates a feeling of inevitability-the protagonists mental and moral decay feels tied to the physical and social decay of the world around her. I would compare it a little bit to AMC's "The Killing," or "Bird Box Barcelona," - a focus on the decaying fringes of a cyberpunk-metropolis, mixed with a heavy dose of poetic and mythic imagery and symbols.This is a movie about, to some extent, the struggle for meaning amidst an uncaring world, and this struggle operates on multiple levels, from mythic fairy tale to gritty undercity drama. The greatest impact of this movie is in its seamless mixing of all of these levels together.For a relatively low-budget independent film, the quality is extremely high, the writing and acting is enjoyable and believable, the visuals are somehow both immersive and claustrophobic, the sound and music rival any big-budget Hollywood movie in terms of quality, and the concept is unique, creative, and memorable.There is not a huge amount of plot, the pace is a little slow at times, and the budget constraints shows in some of the CGI sequences, but the expertly crafted use of motifs and layered stories, combined with the immersive atmosphere make it an enjoyable and memorable film if you are up for the sort of immersive suspense that is horrific, but not shocking, artistic, but not pretentious, and low-budget, but not low-quality.
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80%
AUDIENCE
2.8/10
286
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The movie ambience is great, the main actress ruins it with her bad, soulless acting. Good looks is not the only thing it takes...