NOCEBO (October 2022)

    

NOCEBO

(October 2022)

“Something is hidden inside of you, Christine. Something you hide from yourself. It is invisible to you, and you must see it. It makes you sick. I will draw it out of you and show it to you.”

A children’s fashion line called Tykie comes to a screeching halt after a distressing phone call, and the disturbing “encounter” that accompanies it (one of the creepiest dog scenes I’ve ever seen; at one point in the film’s runtime, that dog is described as “a hideous thing”).

In the aftermath, fashion designer Christine (Eva Green) suffers through a debilitating months-long ordeal, broken only upon the sudden arrival of Diana (Chai Fonacier), who hails from a “very special place” in the southern area of the Philippines, and who claims to have been hired by Christine, though she has no memory of it at all.

“It’s very pretty.”

“It is?”

“We will make it pretty.”

Meanwhile, the other members of the household, daughter Roberta (Billie Gadsdon) and husband Felix (Mark Strong), need to acclimate to this stranger suddenly living under the same roof. One is initially rude, the other, increasingly suspicious, while Christine becomes more trusting and dependent on Diana.

“This is just different medicine, Christine.”

That’s the basic set-up of Lorcan Finnegan’s latest, Nocebo.

If you’ve been paying attention, Finnegan landed ‘round these parts previously for Vivarium, and this film, like Vivarium, ends up being a potent title with a very singular, unsettling vision, proof positive that Finnegan continues to be a name to look out for.

Nocebo is also of particular interest to me since it’s an Irish-Philippine co-production, significant portions of which were shot on location in the Philippines.

Also noteworthy are Fonacier’s commendable performance, and the film’s score, courtesy of Jose Antonio C. Buencamino. This seems to be Buencamino’s first feature film credit, and it’s an impressive one.

“This is so much better than a cure.”

There’s also a particular scene in Nocebo--during Diana’s recounting of her past--that should be a treat for any lovers of Philippine folklore out there.

The term Diana uses may not be the one that might be expected, given what unfolds onscreen, but it’s a nonetheless familiar image to a folklore lover, and that scene’s imagery goes off like gangbusters.

Ultimately though, while the horror in Nocebo is shudderingly effective, it’s the tragic underpinning of the narrative* (scripted by familiar Finnegan collaborator Garret Shanley) that serves as the iron-hard core of this film.

It’s been a long, long, looooong while since I’ve seen a Filipino horror movie that’s this effective.

And sure, it’s a co-production, but still…

So, hopefully, that’s piqued your interest enough to seek this one out…

“You must allow me in, Christine. I will prepare you to face it. You will know it when you see it. You will understand what must happen. And you will be free.”

* An incident based on an actual tragedy in recent Philippine history. To say any more at this juncture would be to spoil a key plot point.

There is a prominent statement though, during the end credits roll that will acknowledge and shine a spotlight on that tragedy.

(Nocebo OS’ and quad courtesy of imdb.com, twitter.com, and themoviewaffler.com.)

¡QUÉ HORROR! 2020

Candidate #5

VIVARIUM

(May 2019)

“Who did that to the poor baby birds?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it was a cuckoo?”

“Why?”

“Because it needed a nest.”

“Why doesn’t it just make its own nest?”

“Because that’s nature. That’s just the way things are.”
“I don’t like the way things are. They’re terrible.”

“Well… it’s only horrible sometimes."

This conversation takes place very early on in Lorcan Finnegan’s sophomore feature, Vivarium.

And as the unsettling opening sequence shows us, it was indeed a ruthless cuckoo--only being true to its nature--that “… did that to the poor baby birds”…

That disturbing opening and the subsequent conversation sets up the film’s scenario, in which Gemma Pierce and her boyfriend Tom (Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg) are drawn by the “strange and persuasive motherf*cker,” Martin (Jonathan Aris) to visit Yonder, a new housing development “just the right distance” away…

And, well… this will not turn out to be their dream home…

You’re home right now.

Quality family homes.

Forever.

--Yonder’s Welcome Sign

Yonder, with its identical model homes and patently fake skies is suburbia as “ideal” (yet terribly bland), inescapable Hell.

It’s the horrifying picture of being trapped in the maddening routine of existence, with only the slimmest of hopes as a possible reprieve from the domestic tyranny of the mortgage, the drip feed, and the hamster wheel.

While you could look at Vivarium as a feature-length Twilight Zone episode that plays far better than any of the ten Season 1 episodes from the recent CBS All Access revival, you could also consider it as a science fiction-tinged expansion of some of Eraserhead’s thematic preoccupations, taking those particular concerns to their disquieting, inevitable conclusions.

“What a lovely sky we have. It is lovely to live under a lovely sky and a lovely house with lovely houses all around us.”

Parting Shot: The writer’s credit for Vivarium goes to Garret Shanley, from a story by Shanley and Finnegan.

The pair also collaborated on Finnegan’s debut feature, Without Name.

That film though, did not grab me in quite the same way Vivarium did…

I am now definitely looking forward to whatever these two get up to next…

(Vivarium OS’ courtesy of screenanarchy.com & impawards.com.)