Did the guy who wrote this movies opening score know he was working on a horror movie? sounds like an old time french circus just rolled into town.
You know how there are certain songs that seemingly everyone knows on planet earth? this movie is a lot like that. i first heard about this movie a crazy long time ago, but i was never to tempted to track it down and watch it. i had almost completely forgotten about it when i saw it on a streaming service i use, so i figured why not and threw it on.
ignoring the plot for a moment, i have to say just how beautifully directed this movie is. i will always have a soft spot for well done black and white film making, but this movie really takes the cake for the best black and white movie i have ever seen. a big part of what makes this movie so visually interesting is all of the amazing settings the story takes you. A beautiful old cemetery, massive french mansions, dark roads late at night, where ever you end up, you can guarantee it will be shot beautifully. you could easily put this movie on mute in an art gallery and i would enjoy it just as much. put surely you horror nerds are here for the nasty kills and facial surgery's, so lets dive into this movies plot shall we?
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
that's right y'all, this is a movie from the 60's about cutting peoples faces off and dumping the bodies in a river. and not just some random dude, the perfect horror movie character Dr. Génessier with his deep french accent and some hella manly stoicism. Pierre Brasseur reminds me a lot of Christopher Lee, and its easy to imagine him as the french Dracula with his long black coat and unsettling silhouette. and if you stillhavent had enough perfectly creepy characters, accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise (Alida Valli) is the perfect sidekick for our murderous doctor. she is the one who lures the young women into getting there faces cut off, and she does a damn fine job. the two make a lovely dynamic duo, and the nasty surgeries that befall there victims serve to make the pair threatening and unsettling whenever they are on screen.
does it drag on a bit? absolutely
is it one of the best movies i have ever seen? absolutely.
9/10
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