Movie Reviews

‘Die My Love’ Movie Review: A Descent into Madness and the Unraveling of Maternal Reality

Published

5 months ago

November 8, 2025

Die My Love Movie Review

Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love is not a film designed for comfort. It arrives with the intensity of a fever dream and the jagged edges of a raw nerve, refusing to offer easy answers or tidy resolutions to the existential nightmare unfolding on screen.

This is film as immersion therapy, plunging viewers headfirst into the psychological disintegration of Grace, a young mother trapped in rural Montana whose grip on reality splinters with each passing day. At countless points through this film, I found myself questioning my own sanity and wondering what was actually happening. Was it real? Was it a metaphor? Or was it a dream or a hallucination? Honestly, by the end, I was asking those same questions about the film as a whole.

What’s Die My Love About?

Based on Ariana Harwicz’s 2012 novel, “Die My Love follows Grace (Jennifer Lawrence) and Jackson (Robert Pattinson), a couple who relocate from New York City to Jackson’s inherited family home in the Montana wilderness. What begins as an idyllic escape quickly transforms into something far more sinister. After the birth of their child, Grace descends into severe postpartum depression that morphs into full psychosis, her sense of self eroding as the walls close in around her.

The movie takes us through Grace’s increasingly disturbing behavior: crawling through tall grass with a butcher knife, throwing herself through glass doors, tearing sinks from bathroom walls, and engaging in primal acts of desperation that blur the line between sexuality and violence.

The film’s structure deliberately disorients. Time becomes elastic and ambiguous, with scenes unfolding in a non-linear fashion that mirrors Grace’s fractured mental state. We see glimpses of Grace and Jackson’s passionate early days in their relationship juxtaposed against the numbing monotony of new parenthood.

Jackson’s mother, Pam (Sissy Spacek), lives nearby and struggles with her own tenuous grip on reality following the recent death of her husband, Harry (Nick Nolte). There’s also Karl (LaKeith Stanfield), another new parent who may or may not be real, existing somewhere in the liminal space between Grace’s imagination and actual encounters.

Die My Love Movie Trailer

Die My Love Movie Review: What I Did and Didn’t Like

Shot on 35mm film in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio, the film traps audiences in Grace’s perspective. Even when she roams through vast Montana landscapes, there’s no escape. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey utilized Kodak Ektachrome reversal stock to create a skewed, almost dreamlike visual signature that enhances the film’s disorienting quality. The result is a viewing experience that feels suffocating and overwhelming, mirroring the protagonist’s psychological imprisonment.

But what really made Die My Love so compelling, and simultaneously so maddening (for me), is its refusal to conform to traditional narrative structures. Ramsay has created a mood piece that prioritizes emotional truth over plot mechanics, and the results are both mesmerizing and exasperating. The film succeeds brilliantly in making you feel Grace’s isolation and desperation. The use of that boxy 4:3 frame constantly reminds us that Grace is trapped, no matter how much open space surrounds her.

The dark humor threaded throughout is unexpected and effective. Grace’s interactions with the people in her life carry an absurdist quality that prevents the film from becoming oppressively bleak. When Jackson brings home an incessantly barking dog expecting Grace to care for it while he travels for work, the scene plays as both tragedy and dark comedy. Lawrence’s commitment to these moments of black humor gives them an uncomfortable authenticity.

The Script

Working from a screenplay she co-wrote with playwrights Enda Walsh and Alice Birch, Ramsay transforms Harwicz’s internal monologue into a predominantly visual experience. The novel is written in a stream-of-consciousness style, filled with poisonous thoughts and maternal ambivalence, but Ramsay wisely avoids leaning too heavily on voiceover or dialogue-heavy exposition. Instead, the script relies on physicality and behavior to convey Grace’s psychological state.

The screenplay’s greatest strength lies in its resistance to easy categorization or diagnosis. Grace is never explicitly diagnosed with postpartum depression or psychosis. There are no scenes with doctors prescribing medication or family interventions with clear treatment plans. This omission is deliberate. Director Lynne Ramsay pushed back against critics who labeled the film simply as a postpartum depression story, stating at Cannes: “This whole postpartum thing is just bullshit. It’s not about that. It’s about a relationship breaking down, it’s about love breaking down, and sex breaking down after having a baby. And it’s also about a creative block.”

The script explores how Grace’s identity as a writer has been subsumed by motherhood, how sexual intimacy transforms (or disappears) after childbirth, and how isolation can accelerate mental decline. Grace’s struggles become universal even as they manifest in extreme, specific ways.

A Complicated Service to Maternal Mental Health?

Yet this ambiguity raises questions about the film’s service to those dealing with postpartum depression. Does Die My Love do justice to this experience?

The answer is complicated. On one hand, the film’s unflinching portrayal of maternal ambivalence and psychological suffering gives voice to feelings many new mothers experience but fear acknowledging. The shame, the isolation, the sense of losing yourself while everyone expects you to be grateful and fulfilled… these emotional truths resonate powerfully.

Lawrence herself, who experienced postpartum depression after filming, noted in interviews that watching the film helped her understand Grace’s mindset: “I hadn’t experienced postpartum while filming, but I knew that suicide is a leading cause of death among new moms. I couldn’t understand how she could do that because I loved my baby so much. But once I experienced postpartum, I realized it has nothing to do with love; it’s about feeling imperfect next to something so perfect.”

On the other hand, by refusing to name Grace’s condition or explicitly show her receiving help, the film risks leaving viewers without resources or hope. And, while artistically bold, the ending (don’t worry, no spoilers here), may not offer much solace to those seeking affirmation that recovery is possible.

Ramsay’s comments about the film’s metaphorical nature suggest she views Grace’s self-destruction as a kind of liberation. Speaking about the ending (again, trust me, no spoilers), she explained: “I was trying my hardest. It’s not in the book. I just felt like she wants to burn the world down. It’s a metaphorical liberation.”

This framing positions the film more as a Gothic tale about a woman who refuses to be domesticated. Whether this artistic choice serves or undermines the understanding of postpartum mental health issues remains an open question….

The Performances

Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love — Jennifer Lawrence in ‘Die My Love’

Jennifer Lawrence as Grace

The performances in Die My Love are without question the film’s strongest element. Jennifer Lawrence delivers what is arguably the most challenging and uncompromising work of her career. This is not the charismatic, accessible Lawrence of The Hunger Games or Silver Linings Playbook. This is something feral, raw, and completely untethered. She filmed many of these scenes while four-and-a-half months pregnant with her second child, adding an extraordinary physical and emotional layer to an already demanding role.

Lawrence’s Grace is simultaneously seductive and repellent, maternal and destructive, vulnerable and terrifying. She shifts from catatonic emptiness to explosive rage within single takes, her body language morphing from predatory crawling to collapsed exhaustion.

The physicality of the performance is stunning. Whether she’s scratching bathroom walls until her nails bleed, climbing inside a refrigerator, or prowling on all fours through grass like an animal stalking prey, Lawrence commits completely. There’s no vanity here, no concern for likability or traditional markers of movie-star glamour. She embodies Grace’s dissolution with a freedom that feels almost dangerous to watch.

Critics have already begun discussing Oscar potential for Lawrence’s performance, which would be her fifth nomination. The comparison to her work in 2017’s Mother! is inevitable, but this feels even more visceral and unprotected.

Robert Pattinson in Die My Love — Robert Pattinson in ‘Die My Love’

Robert Pattinson as Jackson

Robert Pattinson wisely portrays Jackson in a deliberately understated manner, creating a stark contrast to Lawrence’s volcanic performance. His Jackson is not a villain, but rather a well-meaning man completely out of his depth. Pattinson channels an everyman quality, portraying a thirty-something man-child who brings home a dog, expecting his struggling wife to care for it, and suggests his wife “talk” about her feelings, while fundamentally not understanding the severity of her crisis.

The performance is effective precisely because Jackson’s ordinariness makes Grace’s extraordinary suffering more isolating. Pattinson and Lawrence share genuine chemistry, particularly in the film’s opening sequences, where they communicate through physicality rather than words, nuzzling, biting, wrestling in primal displays of desire.

The Supporting Cast

Sissy Spacek delivers a quietly powerful performance as Pam, Jackson’s widowed mother, who recognizes something of her own struggles in Grace’s unraveling. Spacek brings maternal warmth tinged with her own grief and instability, sleepwalking with a gun in scenes that blur the line between dark comedy and genuine menace. Her scenes with Lawrence crackle with understanding, two women adrift in their own ways, connected by shared loss and dislocation.

LaKeith Stanfield’s Karl exists in an ethereal space that keeps audiences guessing whether he’s real or a figment of Grace’s imagination. His understated performance adds to this ambiguity, making his interactions with Grace feel simultaneously grounded and dreamlike. The film never definitively confirms Karl’s reality, leaving viewers to question how many of his scenes actually happened versus whether they exist purely in Grace’s fractured psyche (one of my many ‘what the heck is going on’ moments…).

Overall Thoughts

Die My Love is not for everyone, and it doesn’t pretend to be. Ramsay has crafted a film that exists in the space between arthouse provocation and genuine psychological horror, borrowing techniques from Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty to break down the barriers that keep audiences feeling safe.

The film works best when understood not as a straightforward narrative but as a sensory experience designed to replicate Grace’s mental state. The aggressive sound design, with blaring rock music and deafening slams that assault the ears… the claustrophobic framing that traps characters in doorways and corners… the time distortions that make it impossible to track how much time has passed… all of these choices serve to destabilize viewers in ways that mirror the protagonist’s experience. When you emerge from Die My Love, you should feel like you’ve been through something, like you’ve barely survived tumultuous rapids. That’s the point.

But does that make a good film? The question of whether this movie serves those experiencing postpartum depression remains complex. It offers validation for dark feelings rarely depicted on screen, but it also provides no roadmap for recovery or healing. Grace’s story ends in metaphorical immolation, and while Ramsay intends this as liberation rather than tragedy, the distinction may be lost on viewers seeking hope.

Perhaps the film’s greatest service is simply its willingness to depict maternal struggle without sentimentality or easy resolution, to show that sometimes love isn’t enough to fix what’s broken, and that the societal pressure to perform gratitude for motherhood can itself become suffocating.

However, this one just didn’t work for me – despite the beautiful cinematography and incredible performances.

Die For Me Movie Review: Final Grade

Grade: C-

Related Topics:Die My Love jennifer lawrence movie review robert pattinson

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Movie Reviews

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie First Reviews: Flashy, Fun, and Made For Fans

Published

7 hours ago

March 31, 2026

Press Room

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie First Reviews: Flashy, Fun, and Made For Fans

Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Toad, Bowser, and more Nintendo favorites are back in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which opens in theaters this week. The first reviews of the animated video game adaptation are now online and mixed. Some say it’s even better than the previous feature, 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, while others say it’s so much worse. Of course, either way, the fans will still eat it up, and it’s made specifically for them.

Here’s what critics are saying about The Super Mario Galaxy Movie:

Does it live up to expectations?

If the first film got you on the train, just know this sequel isn’t losing any passengers anytime soon; it’s simply picking up speed.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

I was surprised, like anyone, to enjoy The Super Mario Galaxy Movie…The sequel levels up.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

It never stops feeling like the product of someone mashing lifeless action figures together.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

It’s more a loud, overstuffed reel of loosely connected comedy and action beats presented in mind-boggling onslaughts of color and detail.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine

How does it compare to the first movie?

It’s a far superior sequel to The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

The operative word for this sequel to 2023’s smash hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie is “more,” as in more action, more characters, more Easter eggs, more everything.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie offers a similar mind-numbing experience.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

The first movie… was one of the best animated films in years. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is one of the worst.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety

(Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Is it mostly for the fans?

The sequel hits the sweet spot in terms of what its target audience wants.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

It may feel like more of the same to some, but anything that takes me back to a CRT TV and SNES is a feeling I’ll take 100 out of 100 times.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

While the film leans into “newer” character tendencies to attract younger viewers, it honors the original enough to embrace both the old and the new with enjoyable results.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

Will anyone else enjoy it?

Adult non-aficionados will find little of interest other than the starry vocal cast.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

This isn’t a film that’s going to win over its skeptics.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

How is the animation and world-building?

This may be one of the studio’s best-looking efforts yet, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie feeling even more visually alive than its already stunning predecessor.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

Featuring some of the most beautiful and dazzling animation you will ever see, it is, at times, truly jaw-dropping.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

There’s no sense of discovery when it comes to these planets, meticulously created to resemble the games without nary a wrinkle of surprise to be found.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

Image from The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) — (Photo by ©Universal Pictures)

Are there plenty of Easter eggs?

Even though the Star Fox character is nothing more than a way to introduce a sequel, the other supporting characters and easter eggs throughout are richly rewarding.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

It’s as if it exists only for us to pick out the game-referencing background details in panoramic action shots… and to threaten us with us with a Super Smash Bros. cinematic universe, given the multiversal cameos by non-Super Mario Nintendo characters.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine

The film keeps throwing things at you. It’s an orgy of video-game Easter eggs.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Is the action worthy of the source material?

The action is exciting and inventive.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

The film’s surplus of action and chase scenes follows the same rigid formula of swooping camera movements and game power-up deus ex machinas that no sequence ever proves particularly exciting.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

Does the movie’s pace seem to have gotten a mushroom boost?

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t leave you time to catch your breath.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

Most of the time, the film exists to speed-shuttle audiences to the next visually overwhelming set piece.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine

If anything, the film only loses energy as it goes on, with the final confrontation proving particularly anemic and rushed, as if the film is hurrying along to avoid having to delve into its storylines with more than a surface skim.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

How is the script?

Matthew Fogel’s screenplay, which mostly pays lavish fan service to its inspiration, also weaves in a few emotional elements.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

It isn’t aiming to be a grand, life-affirming story, but pure escapism. That approach doesn’t always land, but when it does, it delivers a charming, whimsical ride.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

The sequel’s plot is unusually heartfelt, with the villains being three-dimensional, which is welcome.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t have a story to tell or themes to express so much as stick to a mandate of audience boxes to check.
— Eli Friedberg, Slant Magazine

Does it do a good job adapting the game?

It has a story that embraces the simplicity of the original game.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

While [it’s] all clearly designed to appeal to young gamers, I don’t mean that the film replicates the experience of playing one of the Super Mario Bros. games. The first movie actually did.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Somehow on screen, it all registers as flat, imagination packaged into the most cleanly corporate and focus-group approved form possible.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

Is it funny?

Most of the jokes land, ranging from cute to amusing to downright funny.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

There’s a funny visual gag revolving around Mario’s inability to draw. And there are some amusing lines that seem designed to make us feel like we’re in on the jokes.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

One of the most successful gags in the movie is essentially a reskin of the famous Sloth DMV bit in Zootopia.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

How’s the voice cast?

The voice cast delivers across the board.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

It’s an embarrassment of vocal riches… Many of the stars’ contributions here, especially those of Black and Glover, are outstanding.
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

Is Yoshi a great addition?

Donald Glover taps into a Groot-like tone for Yoshi, and it works surprisingly well.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

Don’t expect him to get that much to do, though: he’s here because he’s an iconic character rather than as a part of the story.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

Are the villains still the best characters?

I found myself relating to the bratty Bowser Jr. way more than the lead heroes.
— Wilson Chapman, IndieWire

The real standout is Jack Black and Bennie Safdie as Bowser and Bowser Jr.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

Somehow, two Bowsers add up to less of a wowser than one.
— Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Does it have any other major problems?

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie doesn’t necessarily fix the frustrations that held the first film back. The story still leans thin, certain characters feel underutilized, and those looking for something deeper won’t suddenly find it here.
— David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

Charlie Day offers nothing to the Luigi character other than, to put it politely, a distinct voice that brings a beloved character down, which is grating.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

Will it leave us wanting more?

There’s a distinct romantic vibe between Mario and Princess Peach (which I can’t wait to be explored in the next installment).
— Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a fun placeholder while we wait for a Super Mario Bros. film worthy of the titular characters that fans deserve.
— M.N. Miller, InSession Film

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie opens in theaters on April 1, 2026.

Thumbnail image by ©Amazon MGM Studios
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Movie Reviews

Movie reviews drop for Project Hail Mary, They Will Kill You as critics weigh in – Art Threat

Published

19 hours ago

March 31, 2026

Press Room

Show summary

Movie Reviews are now pouring in for two wildly different films competing at the box office. Project Hail Mary is soaring with critical acclaim, while They Will Kill You faces a significantly rougher critical reception in the same weekend. Here’s what critics are saying about both.

🔥 Quick Facts

Project Hail Mary Rating: 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with 8.4/10 on IMDB
They Will Kill You Rating: 63% on Rotten Tomatoes with 6.5/10 on IMDB
Release Spread: Project Hail Mary debuted March 20, They Will Kill You March 27, 2026
Box Office Gap: Hail Mary earning $164.3 million domestically, Kill You debuted with only $5 million

Ryan Gosling’s Sci-Fi Adventure Dominates Critical Praise

Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, has become the undisputed critical darling of late March. The 97%-rated film on major review aggregators showcases Ryan Gosling and Sandra Hüller in a space adventure that critics describe as heartfelt and visually stunning. According to reports, the film demonstrates how science fiction works best with emotional depth and character development at its core. Reviewers consistently praise its balance of action, humor, and genuine pathos.

The movie’s success extends beyond critical praise into audience reception. IMDB’s user score of 8.4/10 demonstrates strong viewer enthusiasm, while Metacritic’s 77 score signals broadly positive critical consensus. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 95% from critics, making it a rare achievement in blockbuster filmmaking for 2026. The film’s box office trajectory confirms this momentum, with earnings approaching $165 million domestically.

Zazie Beetz Leads Gore-Filled Horror That Misses With Critics

They Will Kill You, directed by Kirill Sokolov, takes a vastly different critical path. The horror-action-comedy film stars Zazie Beetz in a role critics acknowledge showcases her talent for intense performances, yet the film itself struggles with narrative and thematic depth. The movie features Patricia Arquette and Myha’la in supporting roles within a story about a woman working as a housekeeper in a New York high-rise filled with cult members.

Critics note that while the film excels in visual style and unbridled gore, it lacks substantive storytelling and character stakes. Rotten Tomatoes rates it 63%, signaling a mixed critical reception, while IMDB’s 6.5/10 score reflects audience disappointment. The film released March 27 to a disappointing $5 million opening weekend from Warner Bros., suggesting audiences may share critical hesitations about its derivative plot and tonal inconsistencies.

Critical Comparison and Reception Details

Movie Detail	Project Hail Mary	They Will Kill You
Rotten Tomatoes	95% Critics	63% Critics
IMDB Rating	8.4/10	6.5/10
Release Date	March 20, 2026	March 27, 2026
Director	Phil Lord, Christopher Miller	Kirill Sokolov
Lead Actor	Ryan Gosling	Zazie Beetz

“Project Hail Mary is a smart, moving, and very satisfying sci-fi adventure with real heart. A film that reminds you that science fiction works best not when it prioritizes spectacle over substance.”

— IMDB User Reviews, Consensus

Why Critics Embrace Heart Over Gore in 2026 Releases

The striking contrast between these two films reveals what critics value in contemporary cinema. Project Hail Mary succeeds by balancing ambitious science fiction concepts with genuine emotional storytelling and character development. The film trusts its audience to care about Ryan Gosling’s journey and the stakes involved in his space mission. Critics praise the cinematography, sound design, and the chemistry between leads as elevating the material beyond standard blockbuster fare.

Conversely, They Will Kill You emphasizes style, gore, and shock value without equal investment in narrative coherence or character motivation. While Zazie Beetz delivers an energetic performance, critics note the script fails to give her material worthy of her talent. The film’s Tarantino-influenced aesthetic and cartoonish violence entertain intermittently but don’t sustain engagement across its runtime. This disconnect explains why audiences stayed away in the opening weekend.

What Do These Reviews Mean for Future Box Office and Awards Season?

For Project Hail Mary, critical success likely signals continued audience interest and potential awards circuit momentum. The combination of 95% critical approval, strong audience reception, and proven box office legs suggests this film could maintain theater presence through April and beyond. Industry analysts expect it to continue collecting records previously held by other 2026 releases. Conversely, They Will Kill You faces an uphill battle with its modest opening and mixed reviews potentially limiting word-of-mouth expansion. The film may struggle to expand beyond its core horror audience during subsequent weekends.

These diverging critical receptions illustrate how modern audiences and critics increasingly reward substance over spectacle. Movie Reviews for both titles emphasize character, emotional investment, and thematic depth as determining factors in critical success. Whether audiences will sustain interest in both films throughout their theatrical runs remains to be seen, but early indicators suggest that the gap between them will only widen as release weekends progress forward.

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Movie Reviews

Movie Review | Severin Films Releases Two Stunning 4Ks By Jess Franco – VAMPYROS LESBOS and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY – Review

Published

1 day ago

March 30, 2026

Press Room

Movie Review | Severin Films Releases Two Stunning 4Ks By Jess Franco – VAMPYROS LESBOS and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY – Review

Film Feature by James Learoyd

Exciting news for horror fans everywhere! If you love Eurotrash, classic exploitation genre-films and a general ora of the bizarre, there’s a chance that you already love cinema’s greatest freak, Jesús (Jess) Franco: the controversial Spanish horror legend who produced almost (though perhaps over) 200 feature-length films in his career. These pictures were frequently defined by their musical experimentation; inclusion of erotic, almost pornographic, scenarios; as well as a flowing, stream-of-consciousness aesthetic formed through never-ending zooms, lack of concrete narrative, and reliance on the expressionistic language of editing.

I’m very happy to announce then that we’ve been blessed with two new 4Ks / blu-rays from Severin (a long-time supporter of Franco’s work) which are both lovingly put together with hours of phenomenal bonus features. The movies are Vampyros Lesbos (1971) – Franco’s most known and celebrated work – and She Killed in Ecstasy (1971), both starring the tragically departed Soledad Miranda in two of her six titles she produced with Franco over the span of a year. I was lucky enough to get early access to these discs and not only found myself falling in love with these movies again, but becoming truly inspired by the additional material provided. So, let’s dive into this provocative double-bill!

VAMPYROS LESBOS

On a rewatch, I can safely say that Vampyros Lesbos is a masterpiece, but in its own unusual way, and on its own unfathomable, formally stimulating terms. And part of what makes it a masterpiece might be because it requires more than one viewing, as well as a complete immersion in the larger contexts of Jess Franco’s filmic intentions. Franco’s love of older literature, especially horror, can be seen through much of his filmography, yet nowhere is it better crystalised as here, wherein he reinterprets the classical tale of Bram Stoker’s Dracula through a modern-day setting, queer characters and a sexually explicit presentation.

My main takeaway from the piece itself on my first rewatch is this: Franco is most skilled at immersing his audience in environments and feelings that are utterly intangible. For instance, the opening burlesque performance involving the use of reflection, the black background (which the film keeps returning to in snippets after the fact) completely exists within the deepest recesses of my psyche – despite, or because, it geographically lacks clarity, and doesn’t feel as if it has any real beginning or ending in terms of sequential beats. This is the kind of stuff this critic obsesses over.

(BONUS FEATURES)

I listened to one of the two featured audio-commentaries provided, that by Kat Ellinger, which is quite wonderful. At first, I found it overwhelming when it came to the focus on more academic discussion; but as soon as I settled in for her thought-provoking perspective, I became absorbed in how Ellinger framed what we were watching through the political and historic. I loved how she takes us through the relevance of literature as well as the contexts under which Franco made his films (frequently in exile due to the constraints imposed by dictator Generalissimo Franco of Spain and his regime, in addition to the authoritarian nature of the Catholic church at the time). Jess Franco was a real radical!

There is a featured interview with an old and grizzled Jess Franco, shortly before his passing in 2013, titled ‘Interlude in Lesbos’ which is quite interesting. Holding onto a cigarette which seemingly remains forever unlit, the man rests further and further back in his chair over the course of the footage, and the way the camera tracks his movements I found quite amusing.

‘Fever Dracula’ is then a featured interview with the incredibly articulate Stephen Thrower – the leading Franco academic whose writing and testimony has long been a bit of a staple of many physical releases of the director’s films. In this interview, he focuses on how Vampyros Lesbos announces a new and abstract form of cinematic language – one that would come to define the Franco style.

But maybe the biggest boast of these bonus features is titled ‘The Red Scarf Diaries’: an interview with Sean Baker regarding how the work of Soledad Miranda and Jess Franco influenced his Best-Picture-winning Anora. One can’t help but be charmed by how the Oscar-winning filmmaker expresses the journey all genre-fans embark on with Franco; one of perplexed beguilement, at first unimpressed by how “rough around the edges” the work is, yet eventually identifying the hallmarks of a real “auteur” with undiluted vision.

We then get an entry in an extended travel docuseries entitled ‘In the Land of Franco’ (this being Part 12). This is also presented by Stephen Thrower as he travels across Europe to now-iconic shooting locations, this part featuring hidden-away areas of Paris most prominently. It’s simple, informative and effective.

But arguably most significant on the disc is a feature which directly addresses the feeling of mourning which has hovered over every previous bit of testimony: the tragic car crash which lead to the death of Soledad Miranda at just age 27, while she was only partway through her planned collaborations with Franco. ‘Sublime Soledad’, presented by Amy Brown, serves as a poignant tribute. It’s tragic that Miranda never got to see any of these movies in the completed states which have become so beloved, but

Brown puts it nicely that it’s apparent that she found this kind of work creatively gratifying. Her performances will live on.

Finally, there’s a short and silly feature entitled ‘Jess is Yoda’ which I don’t want to spoil for everyone… but it’s hilarious, and quite enlightening.

SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY

What an insane film. Again, a rewatch for this critic, this picture is the far pricklier counter to the hypnotic tendencies of Vamyros Lesbos. She Killed in Ecstasy is a truly visceral watch, consisting of deeply disturbing sequences and genuine horror. It’s the strangest “revenge” movie out there.

A medical man is discovered to be conducting experiments on unborn foetuses (Thrower amusingly describes them as “pickled foetuses” since we’re shown the disruptive imagery of them stored in jars accompanied by the funky opening credits) and is then outcast from his profession, leading the character to commit suicide. His lover (played incredibly by Miranda) then takes it upon herself to brutally murder everyone on the board who voted for his dismissal. I love this movie.

Within the bonus features, it’s hilarious how conflicted Thrower is with the backwards moral implications of the film. His interview is ‘Ecstasy in Rage’ and is a great watch. It’s almost as if we are witnessing in real time Thrower attempt to make sense of what Jess was trying to say. He concludes that there’s a cognitive dissonance at play; Franco is depicting some of the most unsettling stuff but doing so in an almost glib and flippant manner, with suicide and murder being complemented by a fast-paced, comedic-sounding style of jazz.

My interpretation is that the presentation of the film – and just how unapologetically it places us in the perspective of a ‘bad person’ – makes the story feel even more disturbing, and Franco’s style and experimentation all the more ideologically provocative.

Other offerings on Disc 2 include another instalment of ‘In the Land of Franco’, another interview with Franco called ‘Jess Killed in Ecstasy’ (same setup as last time – in his old age, he’s still funny, horny and a genuine cinephile), as well as the same ‘Sublime Soledad’ video essay by Amy Brown. Also, on both this and the previous discs are the very entertaining German-language trailers.

But one more touching feature is an interview with actor Paul Muller in his old age, who was a frequent Franco collaborator. He provides some amusing anecdotes about the director and his fascinating persona. I especially enjoyed how he highlighted Franco’s ultra-relaxed style of direction. There was never any script, and Franco would just allow the performers to act whenever they either did or didn’t feel like it – often getting just partway through the day, Jess would break for lunch and say, “we’ll continue tomorrow” (there are many similarities to Franco’s idol Jean-Luc Godard in this respect).

To surmise, Severin has produced a comprehensive guide and appreciation of Franco’s work, with two of his most significant releases and creatively pure expressions. These discs were also far more emotionally involving and reflective than I was anticipating! And when reevaluating what Jess Franco did so well as a visual artist, one could argue that more cinema should be brave enough to offer a location or mood without the need for point B to follow on from point A.

Franco’s worlds grow in the mind over time, crafting a place that you can revisit, be hypnotised by, and yet still not fully comprehend the reasons for its resonance.