CRYSTAL EYES || HXFF 2019 - Canadian Premiere


CRYSTAL EYES
(Mirada de Cristal)
|| CANADIAN PREMIERE ||
2017, DIR. EZEQUIEL ENDELMAN AND LEANDRO MONTEJANO. 82 MIN. ARGENTINA

Starring: Anahi Politi, Camila Pizzo, Silvia Montanari, Victoria Del Rosal, Augustina Del Rosal

WINNER - 2019


Recommended If You Like

Horror Slashers * Giallo Films * Dario Argento * Mario Bava

SHORT SUMMARY

Buenos Aires, 1985: It's the first anniversary of the tragic death of supermodel Alexis Carpenter, and a haute couture magazine is planning a shoot to commemorate her death. However, the night before the shoot is to take place, Alexis's original dresses are stolen and soon important members of the fashion magazine industry begin to disappear or turn up dead. Has Alexis returned from the grave for revenge?

THE BUZZ
"Blood and Black Lace directed by Pedro Almodovar" - Electric Shadows
"...entertaining and inspired in its own right" - The Hollywood News
"[B]eneath this glossy deep red veneer lies a labour of love that embodies everything good in independent horror cinema." - The People's Movies

== Official Selection ==
FrightFest London 2018
Mordibo Film Festival 2018 

Winner - Best Wardrobe - Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Film Festival
Winner - Bronze Skull / Special Mention  - Morbido Film Festival

FULL DESCRIPTION

CRYSTAL EYES can be described as Mario Bava's Blood on Black Lace reflected through the smoke-blown, hazy, teased out pop culture aesthetic of mid-1980s high fashion. Steeped deeply in the giallo genre and wrapping  itself in the same vibrant colour palates utilized by Bava and Argento, CRYSTAL EYES confronts the topic of artificiality and duplicity in the fashion and art world by embracing the artifice and formula of the giallo genre to reflect it back on a series of over-the-top, histrionic characters as they are stalked by a stealthy, sinister mannequin-like female silhouette in a long black leather raincoat.

Standing on the shoulders of Bava, Argentinan filmmakers Ezequiel Endelman and Leandro Montejano not only create a wildly entertaining giallo but manage to evoke the genre in the era of the 80s (an era in which gialli were on the decline). Crystal Eyes feels like a great lost 80s giallo that has only just been discovered after years of obscurity, despite the reality of it being a feat of modern indie film-making passion and craft by a pair of indie horror directors on the rise.

If Dario Argento had made The Devil Wears Prada, it would have been Crystal Eyes. (Aaron Allen)

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