Mitchell Lichtenstein, the director of Teeth, returns with what looks like another sexually charged, sexually frustrated and sexually lethal horror film, the 1880s-set Angelica.
Starring Jena Malone, most recently seen in The Hunger Games films and Inherent Vice, Angelica will have its World Premiere at the upcoming Berlinale alongside the likes of Alex Ross Perry’s Images-esque Queen of Earth. THR debuted the teaser and the festival describes the film as follows: London in 1880, in the middle of the Victorian era. Shop assistant Constance, who lost her parents at an early age, falls in love with doctor and vivisectionist Dr Joseph Barton. When their daughter Angelica is born the pair is overjoyed, but the birth almost costs the young mother her life. From now on she must practice sexual abstinence she is to think of herself as a beautiful garden enclosed by a tall iron fence. Before long her bid to suppress her desires and erotic feelings gives birth to demons. A ghostly being emerges from Constances hysterical fantasy; the spirit penetrates closed doors, terrorising the sleeping child and her fragile mother. When an assistant with parapsychological skills is called to their home, their middle-class world finally falls apart
Angelica is based on the novel by Arthur Phillips and seems a smart, scary story of repression. The film premieres February 7th in Berlin. For more, visit the film guide here.
