251. In Fabric; movie review
Cert 15
119 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex references, sex, bloody images
Another week, another B-movie which surrenders substance for style.
The trailer to Peter Strickland's In Fabric doffs its hat to 1970s-style horror with a lovelorn divorcee (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) being sold a daring red dress by a Morticia Adams-alike shop assistant (Fatma Mohamed).
It transpires that Jean-Baptiste's character, Sheila, is lonely, living at home with her feckless son (Jaygann Ayeh) and his intimidating girlfriend (Gwendoline Christie).
They treat her as a doormat until she shocks them by going on dates in the aforementioned dress.
However, as the trailer promises, the dress provides a lever for bloody deaths.
Jean-Baptiste plays the lead as strangely deadpan given the chaos which is unfurling around her and the dress.
In Fabric is split into two - also telling the story of dull washing machine repairman Reg Speaks (Leo Bill) whose 'mates' force him to wear the returned red dress on a stag do.
Needless to say that, thereafter, things become mighty strange and more than a tad violent in the life of dear old Reg.
It seemed to me that Strickland was attempting to throw David Lynch-style surrealism together with 70s-style bloody horror during In Fabric.
This mix makes it seriously off the wall.
So, as well as the bizarre and violent powers of the dress, there is the weirdness of the shop in which it is bought and the vampire-like staff who run it.
Then there is the mini-obsession with washing machines which are sent into literal tailspins when their owners attempt to clean the dress.
What does it all mean? I have absolutely no idea and, frankly, I am glad on am not on the same warped level as the mind who came up with it.
Regardless, I am sort of glad that I have seen it.
Reasons to avoid: The blood and the madness
Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: Yes
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 6/10
Did you know? Peter Strickland's favourite film screening is Bergman's The Seventh Seal at the National Film Theatre in 1990. They couldn't get a subtitled print, which meant the audience had to don headphones with a member of staff acting out all the lines including the howls of the woman at the stake.
The final word. Peter Strickland: "There’s a lot of me in Sheila, a lot of me in Reg. I’ve stuttered, on and off, all my life, and Reg stutters under pressure. I always think it’s a mistake to say things are autobiographical because it inevitably takes away something from the work but it goes without saying that this sort of work is very personal."
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