Aside from maybe Titane, THE SCARY OF SIXTY-FIRST is hands-down the most psychotic film of 2021, furthering the hastily blossoming legacy of Dasha Nekrasova (director/writer/actress) as one of the great psychopaths of our time.
After seeing all the less-than-thrilled reviews, I expected it would probably be bad, and it has plenty of weaknesses, but I ended up loving it. First off, Polanski's "apartment horror trilogy" are some of my favorite movies of all time. The title card is a blatant nod to Rosemary's Baby and the movie poster is a blatant nod to his even better and highly underrated masterpiece, The Tenant (Top 10 for me). The film does remind me more of these films than anything else I've seen, though the similarities are only in environment and mood - aside from that, and the elements that correlate with plenty of low budget horror, SCARY very much conjures it's own world and vibe through its fully absurd concepts, unique sense of (extremely dry & twisted) humor, and the very "specific" performances (hahaha). The killer music score by Eli Keszler adds a ton to the experience as well.
After a promising start, Dasha enters the movie with her morose acting and Epstein rants (LOL), and for a bit it feels like it might fall off the rails and stay off the rails, but before long there are some very unexpected directional shifts and character arcs, and the rest of the film is OFF TO THE RACES. There were a couple sequences that genuinely shocked me, and plenty more that had me cracking up. In fact, I was cracking up for the majority of the second half of the film. You have to look at the bigger picture. The fact that this movie exists at all is the most hilarious part, and that seems to me like it was clearly intended.
"Oh yeah, you're so...royal"
I know most people are going to be unwilling to see the value in this one because of its transgression and its amateur elements, but I think it takes stepping outside of typical cinematic standards and seeing the value in something so bold & creative to do so. Also, understanding Dasha's humor as a greater whole probably helps. I would recommend this to Dasha fans, but probably not anyone else. It's...LIKE THAT.
After seeing all the less-than-thrilled reviews, I expected it would probably be bad, and it has plenty of weaknesses, but I ended up loving it. First off, Polanski's "apartment horror trilogy" are some of my favorite movies of all time. The title card is a blatant nod to Rosemary's Baby and the movie poster is a blatant nod to his even better and highly underrated masterpiece, The Tenant (Top 10 for me). The film does remind me more of these films than anything else I've seen, though the similarities are only in environment and mood - aside from that, and the elements that correlate with plenty of low budget horror, SCARY very much conjures it's own world and vibe through its fully absurd concepts, unique sense of (extremely dry & twisted) humor, and the very "specific" performances (hahaha). The killer music score by Eli Keszler adds a ton to the experience as well.
After a promising start, Dasha enters the movie with her morose acting and Epstein rants (LOL), and for a bit it feels like it might fall off the rails and stay off the rails, but before long there are some very unexpected directional shifts and character arcs, and the rest of the film is OFF TO THE RACES. There were a couple sequences that genuinely shocked me, and plenty more that had me cracking up. In fact, I was cracking up for the majority of the second half of the film. You have to look at the bigger picture. The fact that this movie exists at all is the most hilarious part, and that seems to me like it was clearly intended.
"Oh yeah, you're so...royal"
I know most people are going to be unwilling to see the value in this one because of its transgression and its amateur elements, but I think it takes stepping outside of typical cinematic standards and seeing the value in something so bold & creative to do so. Also, understanding Dasha's humor as a greater whole probably helps. I would recommend this to Dasha fans, but probably not anyone else. It's...LIKE THAT.