There aren't enough German horror films around these days,
or anthology horror films, or horror films that use the theme of deeply
worrying New Ageist cults as a springboard for bloodstained full-on movie
terror. So it's a delight to report that here we have a film that's all three,
as well as being absolutely cracking piece of nastiness into the bargain. A tiny budgeted modern
EuroHorror thoroughly deserving of the attention of fans of extreme cinema
everywhere, TEARS OF KALI starts off with a prologue sequence set in a grim
room in Poona, India
in 1983. Various cult members are lying on filthy mattresses and are busy
throwing up, having fits or just screaming. The scene culminates in a naked
girl cutting her own eyelids off in a scene Lucio Fulci would have been proud
of and, dare I say it, probably wouldn't have done anywhere near as well or as
unpleasantly as we get to experience here. It's a grim shocking moment and more
than sets the scene for what is about to follow.
The cult is
called the Taylor-Eriksson group and the film flashes forward to modern day to
show us what has happened to three of its members in three respective stories.
The first concerns a girl incarcerated in an asylum after being accused of
murdering one of the cult's members who has set up his own group in Berlin
and has been trying to practice the cult's methods. We hear a lot about 'deep
meditation' and 'journeying into the darkest regions of the soul' before the
story jumps down our throats with some superbly atmospheric out of body horror.
The second story finds a young offender undergoing rehabilitation therapy by a
former cult member whose treatment involves forcing the young man to cut off
his own skin. A genuine two-hander this one, with a gruesome and intense finale
that is wholly horrible without the excessive grue ever becoming too silly or
over the top. The final story is about a faith healer who manages to exorcise
the evil within one of the cult members. Unfortunately it's still lurking
around the building when he's due to leave and after it’s killed his wife he
and his patient end up trapped in the cellar as the thing tries to get in. A
tiny coda ends the movie on a downbeat note.
I really
liked TEARS OF KALI, but it's a film that isn't going to be everyone's cup of
tea. The violence is often excessive but never cartoonish, and the tone is
deadly serious but without the misanthropic nihilism that we have seen in
French EuroHorrors like MARTYRS and THE HORDE. I think it's always a mark of
great achievement for a film like this if you end up totally ignoring the tiny
budget and glarey shot-on-video feel because you're so absorbed by what's
actually going on, and that was definitely the case here. One of the commonest
complaints levelled against anthology pictures is their uneven feel, but by
having a very strong linking theme and consistently graphic disturbing and
upsetting storylines the movie avoids this pitfall as well. It treats its
subject of what might happen to the members of a properly sinister cult in a
fascinating and original way, and makes that premise the star of the movie,
such that when it finished I found myself very keen to know what other members
of the cult might be up to now. TEARS OF KALI 2? I'll be first in line.
Just watched it at your recomendation...great stuff. Reminds me of Urban Gothic(UK TV) with a interesting framing sequence and low budget cam.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes I understand what you mean about the Urban Gothic feel.
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