Blackaria (2010) User Reviews

follows the tradition of Glam Gore

[trashgang · 6/10 · 23 October 2012]

Blackaria is the follow-up of Glam Gore or better known as Last Caress (2010). It follows the same style and is an ode to the Italian giallo style in particular Lucio Fulci.

If you watch this flick then you will see that it isn't a straight horror flick but that they used the camera and lighting to make it an arty flick. I would compare it with the Belgian ode to giallo, Amer (2009). Extreme close-ups and the slow way of killing all in front of the camera. We do have the disguised killer like in the gialli and we do have a murder weapon being very important to the killer in way of use.

I wasn't very fond of Last Caress but I must say that seen a few gialli made nowadays I liked it a bit more. Still, the story is a bit weird with the use of a copy of Goblin music and the use of techno tracks ( a bit like Daft Punk) but this time somehow it worked. But what is excellent again here is the effects used. It's is indeed gory. Having seen a few shorts and flicks from directors François Gaillard and Christophe Robin it's their typical way to make a flick.

Also a trade mark is the use of beautiful women who aren't afraid to show some titties. Story wise it's full of holes again and not all is explained but you watch it for the glam of gore.

Gore 2,5/5 Nudity 2/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5

Giallo Blackout.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 6/10 · 30 April 2018]

Whilst taking part in ICM's French film challenge,I've been Troy Howard's excellent So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of the Giallo book that fellow IMDber melvelvit-1 kindly sent me. Searching for more titles to view,I stumbled on a French Neo-Giallo, (surprisingly not in Howard's book) which felt like the perfect combo of both subjects.

View on the film:

Shot on grainy Digital Video,co-directors François Gaillard & Christophe(r) Robin smartly use the format to their advantage,by making the grainy picture add a layer of misty-eyed, nightmare vision for Angela. Backed by an Industrial score from Dragon Double,the directors slice inspiration from Lucio Fulci and 2000's era Dario Argento in splashes of rubbery gore across the screen, and stylish overlapping images that linger and cast a supernatural atmosphere.

Grabbing the tail of Neo-Giallo with an extended flashback, the screenplay by François Gaillard misses its stab at the genre by failing to build any psychological unease over the killer attacks, or anticipation over the case being solved, with the writer/directors appearing more interested in the peculiar, crystal ball of the supernatural diving into the blackaria.

Missing something

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 17 June 2020]

Francois Gaillard and Christophe Robin must be big Danzig fans, as their arty French neo-giallo films often reference his albums, whether it be the solo instrumental album this one is named for, the Samhain song that inspired All Murder, All Guts, All Fun, The Misfits song Last Caress or Die Die My Darling, which in turn was named for the 1965 Hammer movie.

Angela fantasizes about the gorgeous fortune teller who lives next to her. She dreams of what it would be like to touch her, but soon finds her decimated body. She accidentally breaks a crystal ball, which gives her the ability to see the future. But will it protect her from being the next victim?

This movie may have been made in the style of the giallo, but it doesn't have the story to back it up. Let's back up - yes, most giallo movies actually do have plots and are not formless exercises in style. This looks gorgeous, but it is inevitably empty inside.

Also, much like all giallo, my wife walked in at the exact moment that two nude women were making love. How am I still married?

Blackaria (like much giallo) is not style over substance, but style AS substance

[S_Craig_Zahler · 7/10 · 12 October 2012]

The content of French indie gem Blackaria is the style--- its lush and oblique presentation of its giallo content.

Giallo can mean a lot of things, but here I use the term to mean stylishly-photographed horror-mystery with lingering shots of gore and unclothed females and a puzzling sensibility throughout akin to dreaming. No more or less logical than things like House by the Cemetery or Inferno, and similarly entertaining, Blackaria is a collection of dreamy and lush visual sequences. Lighted with the strong reds and blues of vintage Argento and misty like Fulci, Blackaria is an atmospheric and convoluted concoction of blades, blood and breasts.

I saw an Argento interview where he said that Sergio Leone told him that the center of Once Upon a Time in the West was not the plot or actors, but the camera and Blackaria follows in that tradition, offering an experience that is violent, erotic, puzzling and atmospheric.