Piercing is a twisted watch that will completely satisfy genre fans and polarize mainstream audiences — but that's why it works (mostly).
Piercing — based on Japanese novelist Ryū Murakami's book of the same name — feels so familiar. It has story elements of American Psycho and tinge of Phantom Thread while boasting stylistic flourishes reminiscent of 70s horror movies like Carrie and Suspiria— down to the horn-infused score, split-screens, and breezy music montages.
That isn't to say that it's not original. Piercing brings all those elements together as a lean, entertaining genre romp that is a bit hollow in its story and themes, but stunning in execution.
Reed (It Comes at Night‘s Christopher Abbott) is an unassuming family man with a beautiful wife Mona (Laia Costa) and adorable newborn. However, like Patrick Bateman, Reed has impulses to kill. He frighteningly hovers an ice pick inches away from his daughter but resists. Instead, he finds another way to relieve his urges.
Reed meticulously plans a murder under the guise of a business trip. Director Nicholas Pesce — following up his black-and-white The Eyes of My Mother — does a phenomenal job evoking the very specific era in film. The shadowy cinematography by Zack Galler perfectly underscores the film's mysterious game of erotic cat-and-mouse.
We watch as Reed gets to a hotel room to plan, set-up, and rehearse his murder of a prostitute. Did I mention this is a dark comedy? Abbott perfectly plays the part of an awkward psychopath meticulously planning every move — with added sound effects — of his crime.
However, for all his planning, he couldn't plan going up against Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), a prostitute with nefarious motivations of her own. The tension — cut through with darkly funny laughs — is gloriously built up in the first half and pays off sublimely in the disturbing and gory second half.
Group's horror film PIERCING. Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures Content Group.
Wasikowska has carved a glorious niche for herself in dark, brooding horror-thrillers like Stoker, Crimson Peak, and Only Lovers Left Alive. She continues to do great work here playing the crazy counterpart to Abbott's straight man — but still crazy — Reed.
If anything, the biggest criticism of the movie is that it doesn't give either actor enough time to build the characters and their relationship beyond what is on the page. It frustratingly ends right as we're starting to get a feel for what the movie has in store for them.
And while some themes of control and dominance are able to find their way through, the movie is more hallow that it thinks it is.
However, it's hard to complain when at just 81 minutes, Piercing is a twisted watch that will completely satisfy genre fans. It's a movie designed to be polarizing — think Darren Aronofsky's mother! — but it's an exciting risk by an interesting new voice in horror.
Where to watch Piercing: Playing in limited release on February 1st. Also available to rent or buy on Prime Video and
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Hey! I'm Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I'm also a Tomatometer-approved critic.
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Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.
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