Black Circle (2018) User Reviews

Lovely filmmaking and story (minus nipples)!

[boxing_helena · 6/10 · 15 November 2018]

I like this film! It is full of passion and heart -> the way storytelling should be.

The story is engaging and interesting: I like the notion of comparing now and then with the help of a hypnosis-record and the way it comments on our lack of harmony and peace in modern society.

The cinematography is *beautiful* and the framing brilliant. The montages are well put together with just the right amount of irony and the film's soundtrack is like chocolate: well composed and full of feeling.

Felice Jankell does a great job, (it is a walk in the park for her though), I could do without her nipples in many of the scenes though.

Overall Black Circle is a joyful and inspiring genre film that also gives you deeper aspects to contemplate.

Interesting

[brunovanael · 5/10 · 3 June 2021]

Interesting at first but not towards the end. Original story, with some very nice images. A bit arty.

Lost in Brainland

[MidoriFiore · 1/10 · 5 October 2018]

I did not believe that Felicé Jankell could have starred in a worse horror film than Alena. But alas I was dead wrong.

The central conceit of Svart Cirkel/Black Circel is a great one: a vinyl which causes the listener to produce a ghostly doppelganger of sorts that whiches to replace it's original. But the exection of the story is simply terrible.

The cinematography and grading is ugly. Unusally ugly for a Swedish production. The "psychadelic" editing is nueasiating in a bad way. At one point there is a sex scene that was filmed in a way that made me feel sexually assaulted by Hanna Asp and Johan Palm. The story keeps bombarding us with concepts that rarely are sufficiently established. Suddenly two characters appear that are telepaths. I am not saying that it has to be completely explained but they and their power appears out of nowere in such a way that you are left completely confused. We get little to no establishing of these characters and their powers which make their appearence awfully convinient for the plot to move forward. Characters are as thin as paper. The dialoge they have to say is cluncky. Often the characters have to explain the plot as it happens, which gives us little to no tension.

The acting is... pretty phoned in. Felicé Jankell sleeps through most of the film. I think there was only one scene where she was intentionally supposed to behave as if on drugs. The Midfjäll girls from I Miss You make a reapperence as a victim of the vinyl and he ghostly double. I guess they where only because using actual twins would make shooting simpler. To be fair, the Midfjäll gives a pretty convincing performance towards the end, but it's to little to late. Christina Lindberg has hardly acted since the 80's. She acts like someone who has not acted since the 80's.

In the end none of the positive qualites outweights the negative and does not save this from becoming a complete and utter dud.

A mind bending experience!

[roger-99-171599 · 7/10 · 10 August 2019]

Edgy, Sexy and Transcendental, this is a mind bending experience, an utterly original and macabre look on the seeking for self improvement. Two sisters are trapped in a life changing and risky mystical cult after being hypnotized by a magnetic musical Record from the 70's. As they experience success and go on alternative styles, soon their ability will charge an irreversible price. Psychedelic, enigmatic and incredibly performed, it's a haunting look at ambition, greed and women's determination.

Black Circle

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 8 September 2023]

Two sisters, Celeste (Felice Jankell) and Isa (Erica Midfjäll), tried to change their lives with a self-help record from the 70s that was supposed to stop stress and create a calming sense of self thanks to self-hypnosis. The problem is that it creates a doppelganger of the listener that grows strong enough that it eventually replaces the person who let it into the world. Only one person can save Celeste and Isa: hypnotist Lena Carlsson (Christina Lindberg!), the voice of the album who created it with her father, who worked at the Stockholm Institute for Magnetic Research and who believed that magnetism is the only way for people to reach their full potential.

Directed by Adrian Garcia Bogliano (Here Comes the Devil, Late Phases), Black Circle is a movie that I have been waiting to watch for some time. I loved the look of this movie, one that tries to mess with your senses from the very beginning and continues playing with time and space as the record overtakes minds.

I could have maybe done without the straight-up X-Men expansion of the story with telepathic psychics Victor (Johan Palm) and Selma (Hanna Asp) who have been sent by The Supreme to help destroy the doppelgangers. What I did love was the idea of the darkness that is coming for Celeste and Isa, one of their own making, because when it seems like it's so simple to fix your life, it may only be the way to make it much worse.

Also: Christina Lindberg needs to be in more movies. I'm so excited to see her in this, a film deserving of the queen of They Call Her One Eye. My time spent counting the days until I could see this were worth it.

Enchanting experience!

[robaert-52070 · 9/10 · 12 January 2019]

Black Circle is an enchanting experience. A surreal nightmare, full of bizarre images and sounds, that are etched into the mind of the viewer. It's a bit like The Ring meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers, if Dario Argento had directed. It's an unpredictable film, unlike anything you've ever seen in the Swedish language.

Plays like a greatest hits of modern-day terror

[george.schmidt · 7/10 · 20 August 2019]

BLACK CIRCLE (2019) ** Felice Jankell, Erica Midfjall, Hanna Midfjall, Christina Lindberg, Hanna Asp, Johan Palm, Hans Sandqvist, Inger Nilsson. Intriguing but ultimately disjointed horror film about a pair of sisters who discover a supernatural vinyl record whose self-help mumbo jumbo unearths dopplegangers wanting to break on thru to the other side. Filmmaker Adrian Garcia Bogliano taps into many sub genres - Cronenbergian body horror, Lynch doubles, Craven dreamscapes, RING-like overtones (audio instead of video), INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS viscera and even echoes of giallo - and while it plays like a greatest hits of modern-day terror the film's final act is far too telegraphed and shrug-worthy.

Low budget but highly entertaining!

[stephenherman · 8/10 · 26 August 2019]

Caught a screening of this at a festival in NYC. I have to admit, I was impressed. It's a low budget film but very high concept. It went a lot of weird places (hypnotism, psychics, doppelgangers, etc) but it was a real fun ride. A lot of original stuff in this one. Some creepy moments. Enjoy the ride.

Peter Strikland on Ketamine

[darren-153-890810 · 10/10 · 10 October 2020]

Wow, this film just absolutely blew my mind.

From the opening 2 minutes you're in, like some kind of weird trance, it really does pull you in. Reminds me of Beyond The Black Rainbow with the 70's retro vibe of a Peter Strikland movie.

I loved every minute and had absolutely no idea what was going to happen next.

If you're into trippy films that take you to another place then this is right up your street

Excellent 100% recommande

[odavestidosyregalos · 10/10 · 12 February 2021]

It is original, impactful, close, great. I have adored her, but I do not think she can be well seen by ordinary people that the deepest thing is to see a facebook meme. For the rest, I recommend it, it is really a pleasure to see it.