Housewife (2017) d. Can Evrenol (Turkey) (82 min)
Two decades after her mother brutally killed her sister Hazel and father (an amazingly stylish pre-credits sequence), Holly (Clementine Poidatz) can still find no peace in her life and is increasingly terrified at the notion of starting a family of her own. She numbly endures lovemaking with her husband Timucin (Ali Aksoz) and has to urinate in sinks and tubs due to the trauma incurred by her sister’s toilet-related murder. When her former friend and lover Valery (Alicia Kapudag) returns, now a “family” member of the mysterious cult Umbrella of Love and Mind (ULM), Holly finds herself falling into a hallucinogenic realm where past and present crosscut and where charismatic leader Bruce O’Hara (David Sakurai) holds sway over her future.
One of the highlights of the 2017 Cinepocalypse film festival, Housewife has received precious little fanfare during its streaming and home video release and that’s a damn shame, because this is a terrific slice of body horror with a psychological twist, nimbly playing with time and expectations. Ignore the petty (and unwarranted) online criticisms of the Turkish-accented cast’s performances and enjoy Evrenol’s superlative artistic palette, with blues and reds flooding the screen (courtesy of cinematographer Taymen Tekin) accompanied by Antoni Maiovvi’s hypnotic musical score.
Those who enjoyed the director’s debut effort Baskin should enjoy the similarly mind-bending narrative; those who felt their minds got bent just a little too far will appreciate the relative restraint displayed this time around, with a haunting third act resolution that feels appropriately off-the-rails, apocalyptic yet entirely appropriate.
Housewife is available now on DVD (on a regrettably bare-bones, extras-free disc) from RLJE Films and can be ordered HERE:
https://us.rljentertainment.com/franchise/housewife/
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