Thursday, October 15, 2015

NACIYE (2015) Screamfest 2015

Ugly little film from Turkey is premiering  tonight at Screamfest in LA and soon it's going to be audience's stomachs across the globe.

The film is the story of the title character a late middle aged woman who simply refuses to leave the house where she has been living. When a real estate  agent shows up to check on the tenants who rented the home he finds Naciye staying there as if it was her home. The trouble is that the owner of the house died and made no provision for her, however Naciye won't here of it and she does away with the agent on gruesome fashion. Things become complicated when a couple shows up hoping to spend a quiet weekend before their baby arrives relaxing. Things do not go well.

Graphically violent in most unpleasant ways you'll be wincing with each stab, slash, shot or hit. Say what you will about the film over all, director Lutfu Emre Cicek knows how to mess up his audience right from the start so that we are on edge from the get go just waiting for the next nasty thing to happen.

The sound design is incredible giving the film a liveliness that most films of any size budget ever achieve. I was really impressed at how integral the sound was to what was happening. Its so good that you begin to wince just from the sound. I love the use of the record scratch in certain scenes. It gives a beautiful feeling of old souls moving through life.

While there is much to admire, I'm not sure what I think of the film over all. Yes the horror sequences are well staged, even to the point of being drawn out in painful real time but some of the dialog sequences seem run on just to extend the run time to feature length (the film is just over 75 minutes). The film is clearly made by a filmmaker with above average talent and intellect but some of the baser audiences may not be as appreciative of Cicek's talent or pacing. The speed of everything is very deliberate and may annoy those wanting a quicker pace in the early part of the film. I know that I admire the film more than I like it. I'm not sure if that's because the film is too disturbing or that the parts are not as good as the whole. I really need to ponder this one (and were the film not screening tonight I would have sat on this review a bit longer before posting),

Despite my reservations the film is getting a big Unseen Films recommendation, Partly because its a film that is going to mess with your head, but also because it is very much in keeping with the Unseen Films founding principle of recommending good or interesting films that are nowhere close to the mainstream. This is a film that most American filmmakers wouldn't dare to duplicate (nor could they duplicate half as well)

The tickets for the screening tonight can be found here.

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