This isn't a standard horror film. It's a low budget art film with a vampire theme. If you watch it with that in mind, it's pretty thought provoking and very memorable. It has a couple of shocking scenes and it has a nice atmosphere, but for most of it's running time, Daughters of darkness plays as a drama.
The question is... Would you even call daughters of darkness a horror movie at all?... Personally i think i do, but it's a close call. It's just dark enough and morbid enough to put it into the horror category, but it's not really suspenseful and it doesn't try to generate thrills.
The visual style is very striking. The aesthetic of the movie brings to mind the french new wave movement and there is nothing standard about the way it's made. The editing, the use of sound and the pacing are all very unusual. There is also a great deal of attention lavished on the art direction and the costuming. Everything in the film feels like it's very calculated. It never feels improvisational. There is never a sense of spontaneity.
Daughters of Darkness has the sort of cold logical atmosphere that you might find in a Stanley Kubrick film.
It's a film that's full of dialog and most of the film is played out, watching people talk to each other. The dialog is very well written and constantly engaging. You rarely see a horror film that relies this much on acting. The acting is fantastic, so it works to it's advantage.
Delphine Seyrig delivers one of the best performances i've seen in a long time. I'm not going to forget that performance any time soon. Even if the supporting cast hadn't been excellent, she could have carried the film all by herself. It's even more impressive when you think about how complex her character is.. She's half villain, and half hero. She's never entirely unsympathetic, but she's clearly calculating and manipulative.
this might even be a truly great movie. I'll have to watch it again to be sure, but it's definitely good enough to warrant multiple viewings. It's one of the artiest horror films i've ever seen and it's worth checking out, even for people that don't enjoy the genre.
The question is... Would you even call daughters of darkness a horror movie at all?... Personally i think i do, but it's a close call. It's just dark enough and morbid enough to put it into the horror category, but it's not really suspenseful and it doesn't try to generate thrills.
The visual style is very striking. The aesthetic of the movie brings to mind the french new wave movement and there is nothing standard about the way it's made. The editing, the use of sound and the pacing are all very unusual. There is also a great deal of attention lavished on the art direction and the costuming. Everything in the film feels like it's very calculated. It never feels improvisational. There is never a sense of spontaneity.
Daughters of Darkness has the sort of cold logical atmosphere that you might find in a Stanley Kubrick film.
It's a film that's full of dialog and most of the film is played out, watching people talk to each other. The dialog is very well written and constantly engaging. You rarely see a horror film that relies this much on acting. The acting is fantastic, so it works to it's advantage.
Delphine Seyrig delivers one of the best performances i've seen in a long time. I'm not going to forget that performance any time soon. Even if the supporting cast hadn't been excellent, she could have carried the film all by herself. It's even more impressive when you think about how complex her character is.. She's half villain, and half hero. She's never entirely unsympathetic, but she's clearly calculating and manipulative.
this might even be a truly great movie. I'll have to watch it again to be sure, but it's definitely good enough to warrant multiple viewings. It's one of the artiest horror films i've ever seen and it's worth checking out, even for people that don't enjoy the genre.