"The demon is a liar. He will lie to confuse us; but he will also mix lies with the truth to attack us. His attack is psychological
and powerful."
William Peter Blatty – The Exorcist.
With that text extracted from the book "The Exorcist" begins Luciferous, the Canadian horror film that has surprised us and where this text, is no accident. In fact everything that happens in the film is not chance, nor is it at random, not even decoration.
Luciferous is a film that tells the story of an ordinary family made up of Alex, Mahsa and the little 7-year-old Mina, who suffer the attack and harassment of something or someone directly and indirectly and slowly take them to madness . We say directly because the target of the attacks is Alex, the main victim of these events and indirectly because his daughter Mina and his wife Mahsa are those who are affected by the behavior of the father who seems to be increasingly immersed in the paranoia becoming Frightening
It all happened normally in the life of these three until one day Alex undergoes a very strange accident in a park. This accident leaves him in bed and unconscious a few days and wake up nothing will be the same. Alex begins to see and perceive very strange things in his apartment. Of course no one believes him and not only that, but given his post-traumatic condition they blame him for much of what happens.
Each scene seems to be filmed in a home-made way regarding the quality of the image being a low-budget film but with an unusual and somewhat strange effectiveness since the performances are not very bright but they are hypnotic. Something is going to happen and you know it.
As the story progresses the atmosphere begins to load more and more tension for an outcome that we can ensure is far from what they imagine transforming this humble film into a great story of suspense and terror, a terror that Is no stranger to us since it is implied in every moment. The work between the narrative and the spectator is of perfect collaboration: the gaps left by them, we fill them with what we imagine.
The decoration in the apartment is not alien to history either. You will see many masks hanging from the walls that are almost an analogy between what appears to be and what it really is. We all wear masks after all and this is also relevant at the end. We also find a lot of symbolism: If something left us "The Witch" (2016), among many things, is that even the rabbits hide more than being simple and innocent little animals.
Luciferous is a good suspense film and psychological horror that acts on the viewer from the beginning with a load of mystery from the same text of Blatty. We will think of demonic possession and spirits, but will there be?
The quote from "The Exorcist" is a tribute along with the masks and is not the only one, there is a clear homage to Kubrick's "The Shining" and there is a direct and visual mention to a current urban legend that is slowly growing in the imaginary Collective, not only cinema and horror stories, but real and tragic events that have happened in recent times. They will see it and they will realize it in the act. As history is impeccable and effective since in the end everything closes and squares to perfection.
This film has something very special since the family in the film is a family in real life: Mahsa Ghorbankarimi and Alexander Gorelick are a real marriage and their daughter is Mina Gorelick, the girl we see. "Minushka," as her mother Mahsa calls her lovingly using the diminutive "shka" that is used in Russia for female proper names. They are of Belarusian origin both in the film and in real life.
Not only do they act by making themselves but they produced, wrote and directed the film. Perhaps it is the most familiar production in the history of cinema.
All are questions and every question leads us to an assumption and every assumption will lead us to another question. The surprise that will be taken at the end in this small and great film where nothing is what it seems, as an outcome, is very effective.
If we had to choose a phrase to define it we could use the famous "I am more afraid of the living than the dead" because it may summarize what we experience together with the protagonists. But what is behind the living and that moves them ?, in that field they give us the reflection to us so that we draw our own conclusions.
In a world full of prequels, sequels, spin-offs and reboots, independent productions like these are a song of hope in a world that seems lost in the lack of ideas. Without doubts a little gem lost in the world of cinema.
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