DESPITE the first 30 minutes of Peter Strickland’s Arthouse-Hammer focusing on this very act, I would advise firmly against seeing In Fabric on a first date.
It’s scary, gory, filthy, extremely funny in places, but utterly, utterly mad.
1
Taking the Boxing Day sales as a springboard, this kinda-chapterised tale is in the face of it, about a haunted dress.
I mean, it is about a haunted dress, an indestructible, vengeful, floaty piece of fabric that offs anyone daring enough to put it on.
We have newly divorced Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and couple Babs (Hayley Squires) & Reg (Leo Bill) all falling foul.
Circling them in simultaneously terrifying and hilarious ways are vampiric shop assistants and discombobulated bank managers (Julian Barret bringing another level of surrealism).
It’s as if Reeves and Mortimer were asked to make a porny-horror film that would confuse even them.
Several scenes are eye-wateringly graphic (both sexually and violently) and the tone of the movie will certainly not be to all tastes, but even though I had little clue exactly what statement on consumerism Strickland is trying to make, thank goodness films like this come along every now and then to give us a shot in the veins.
In Fabric (15)
★★★☆☆
