Directed by:
Tilman SingerScreenplay:
Tilman SingerCinematography:
Paul FaltzComposer:
Simon WaskowVOD (1)
Plots(1)
One rainy night, Luz, a young taxi driver, drags herself through the brightly lit door of a rundown police station. In a bar, the seductive Nora engages police psychotherapist Dr Rossini in conversation. As the evening wears on she tells him about Luz, a rebellious school friend at her old girl’s school in Chile. Nora is possessed by a demon. The creature that has possessed her longs for the woman it loves – Luz. Nora makes Dr Rossini drunk and the demon takes possession of the unsuspecting therapist. Supervised by his colleagues Inspector Bertillon and their translator, Olarte, Dr Rossini puts the confused Luz under hypnosis. Luz goes through the events which occurred immediately prior to her arrival at the police station. But the creature lurking undetected inside Dr Rossini wants more. Gradually, it begins to influence Luz’ memories, unleashing long-buried emotions. Luz is a thriller that toys with the audience’s perceptions. (Berlinale)
(more)Reviews (2)
After watching the promising trailer, I had high hopes for Luz, expecting an intense horror experience reminiscent of atmospheric horror films from the 70s and 80s. Unfortunately, I was way off. The trailer managed to include all the genuinely horror-like scenes from the film, so beyond that, there's just a lot of talking. Essentially, Luz is a stylishly shot conversational horror about possession, but it's hard to grasp what's actually going on. Most of the film takes place in a single room, revolving around a bizarre reconstruction of an event through hypnosis, and that's where the story unfolds. The beginning looked promising, with the film attempting to build some tension, and for a while, I was hopeful it was heading somewhere and about to kick into high gear. But it never did. All my hopes quickly faded, giving way to sheer boredom. By the halfway mark, I had given up on it entirely and just wished for it to end. Apart from the excellent retro stylization, there's nothing much here to captivate genre fans – I can't even pinpoint what kind of audience this film would appeal to. One thing Tilman Singer did manage was to create a convincing time warp where 70 minutes felt like 2 long, tedious hours.
()
The German movie Luz is an example of an art-horror movie. Sure, it has a certain atmosphere, although that is not because of the horror element but rather how strangely the movie was shot. I can imagine this being shown in art house cinemas to a cult audience. As a horror fan, though, I did not find it particularly exciting and it was just a sort of experimental movie.
()