Alleluia

Director - Fabrice du Welz (Adoration, Vinyan)

Starring - Lola Duenas (Volver, The Sea Inside), Laurent Lucas (Raw, Rabid Dogs), and Helena Noguerra (Perfect Crimes, Heartbreaker)

Release Date - 2014

Genre - Horror/Romance

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection)

Rating (out of 5):

     I like to think that I have my finger on the pulse of horror but the truth is that so many genre title are released and go unnoticed.  A good bit are international titles but the same can be said about movies, especially indie productions, here in the states.  A few weeks ago Vinegar Syndrome announced the release of 2014's Alleluia from their partner label Music Box Selects.  I saw it was directed by Fabrice du Welz who also helmed Adoration which I reviewed a few weeks back.  This really caught my eye and I pulled the trigger on the pre-order.  I'm glad I did because I really enjoyed this one.  

     The film follows a woman who has a one-night stand with a man she met online.  However, he tries to stand her up before moving on to the next woman he can sucker.  She is able to track him down and her obsession for him soon takes over resulting in her killing any woman she finds him with.  The man, who also has a knack for killing to get what he wants, teams up with her to kill unsuspecting women for profit.  

     The slipcover for this release, along with Welz directing, was the selling points for the film.  I loved the bloody and gritty artwork along with the title.  However, I was not expecting to enjoy it as much as I did.  The acting in this one is great.  The entire film has a great cast that works so well together.  They feed off each others energy and match it on screen resulting in some emotionally intense scenes that honestly gave me chills.  The characters are a little difficult to follow at first but as the film progresses you find yourself getting pulled in by their insane performances.  The story for this one is said to be loosely inspired by the Lonely Hearts Killers from the 40s.  We follow a wayward couple who kill for cash and other means.  I can see the similarities to the LHK but I couldn't help but think about the iconic Vin Syn release of Psychos in Love.  That film also follows a killer couple but the oddball characters and comedy made it stand out a lot more than Alleluia did but the films serious tone and amazing cast made this serious story work.  It does have some slower scenes that doesn't seem to gather momentum until much later but it's nothing that takes way from the overall film.  Finally, this one doesn't shy away from blood.  We get several scenes with a good bit of blood with minimal practical effects.  It's not a gory one but the blood does flow pretty freely.  Overall, Alleluia was gruesome and intense at times and a slow one-sided romance at others.  It works well together but some of the scenes could be tweaked to fix the pacing.