The trailer for Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's great Austrian horror film Goodnight Mommy went viral last year after it was deemed by several outlets to be one of the scariest of all time (my own reaction was a tad more measured), a designation the movie itself couldn't possibly live up to but which nevertheless goosed its North American box office take to $1.1 million — an impressive total for a foreign art house film directed by unknown filmmakers. I found Mommy to be an insightful, provocative, disturbing and ultimately devastating portrait of grief, and I couldn't help but think of it while viewing the new trailer for another European horror film, Lucile Hadžihalilovi?'s intriguing Evolution.
First off, what a trailer. Unlike the advertising for so many American horror films (including this one that just dropped today), it gets under your skin by leaving much to the imagination, creating a sensuous, vivid and highly suggestive world in less than 90 seconds. The film's official synopsis adds further intrigue:
“In ‘Evolution”, 10-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother in a village on a remote island inhabited solely by women and young boys. In a hospital overlooking the ocean, all the boys are subjected to a mysterious medical treatment. Only Nicolas questions what is happening around him. He senses that his mother is lying to him, and is determined to find out what she does with the other women at night, on the beach. What he discovers is the beginning of a nightmare into which he is helplessly drawn. Max Brebant, Roxane Duran and Julie-Marie Parmentier star.”
Like Goodnight Mommy, Evolution deals with the Medea-like tension that arises between a young boy(s) and his mother, but it is more expansive than the former, taking place against the backdrop of a bizarre society in which fathers are completely absent. While the premise has a mythological feel, the “medical experiment” angle brings in a possible sci-fi element as well, and I'm curious to see what director Lucile Hadzihalilovic (Innocence) has in store. Fascinating.
Evolution hits U.K. screens in May and is slated for a North American release sometime this year.
(via Bloody Disgusting)