Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Fatma Mohamed in ‘In Fabric’.
Written and Directed by: Peter Strickland
Starring: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hayley Squires, Leo Bill, Gwendoline Christie, Julian Barratt
It is interesting to note just how informed horror and drama are by comedy or vice versa.
Take for instance, A24’s “In Fabric” which is hitting American cinemas this weekend from writer-director Peter Strickland. Here he weaves an intricate tail of a dress who possesses its owner. But said owner is not just any bloke can buy the dress off the rack for their partners.
No, this dress is wont to own its owner, and in this case it is the recently divorced Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who takes up these stunning red threads. Strickland takes great care to define who Sheila is and is not. We get a sense of modern dating for those in the later years of their lives (I’m not discounting myself from that statement).
The caretaker of the dress is Miss Luckmoore, played divinely by Fatma Mohamed. As Sheila is drawn into the store with 1970’s – esque television commercials, appealing to her prurient needs rather than her practical needs, she decides to buy the dress, though as we discover throughout the film, the dress really chose her.
Strickland goes to great lengths to build Sheila as a character. We see her ups and downs as she first tries to date and then secondly, has to ward off what appears to be her lazy son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh), who happens to be dating the exceptional – looking Gwen (Gwendoline Christie). Add to which, Sheila is a bank teller. We don’t know much about the company she works for, but there are definitely rules within which she must operate, both professionally and personally. These points are deftly handled through meetings with her managers, Stash (Julian Barratt) and Clive (Steve Oram) give her the third degree for small infractions with the funniest one being that Sheila waved inappropriately to the bank managers’ wife on the street one time.
Though much of the drama is driven by humor, we can feel the blanket of horror bearing down on us as Sheila becomes uncomfortable with the dress, trying to return it. Ari Wegner’s camerawork uses beautiful close-ups and odd angles to define the deviant nature of the people who inhabit the store, especially Mr. Lundy (Richard Bremmer), who pleasures himself over a mannequin. This dark humor plays to the story’s strengths as the film attempts to dominate its audience.
Because the story is more about the dress than its inhabitant is, Strickland is able to weave in a second story involving Reg Speaks (Leo Bill). The dress in fact ends up in one of his mates’ hands as a fun moment during Reg’s stag party. The dress latches itself on to Reg and affects his relationship with his fiancée, Babs (Hayley Squires). It is this second story that becomes more gruesome. Yet, there is a beauty in the horror being presented to us that compels us to see this story through.
From the opening credits, Strickland’s vibe is mid-1970’s fashion catalogue look through disrupted VHS video or ads that appealed to a certain mindset. Even the characterizations felt of the sterilized corporate-governance feel of Terry Gilliam’s “Brazil”: even poor Reg is chastised for fixing his own washer (he’s a washer repair man). His boss just decimates his working life with a look, and a swallow. Strickland spares no character any shame in this story.
Once the dress takes its own shape, the story changes, but Strickland keeps the story’s sensibilities in tune to a 21st century audience and that’s what is so compelling about this horror film – it plays off our love of laughter, our feelings of freedom when we get that perfect outfit and the horror of being dominated and controlled.
3.75 out of 4 stars.
