Review: Jena Malone shines in Victorian sexual repression thriller ‘Angelica’
Writer-director Mitchell Lichtenstein will always have a tough time topping “Teeth,†the sensational body-horror film he released to critical acclaim a decade ago. But Lichtenstein gets close to matching that cult favorite with “Angelica,†a Victorian gothic melodrama that — like “Teeth†— features a strong female lead and some disturbing evocations of sexual anxiety.
Based on an Arthur Phillips novel, “Angelica†stars Jena Malone as Constance, the wife of a prominent London medical researcher, John Barton. While giving birth to their first child — named Angelica — Constance suffers injuries to her reproductive system so severe that her doctors suggest she should forever be “a closed garden.â€
As her husband’s sexual frustration mounts, he begins expressing his lusts in ways that shock Constance’s genteel late-19th century sensibilities. Simultaneously, their home becomes haunted by a vaguely human-shaped cluster of ethereal insects that Angelica dubs “the flying man,†whose aggressive appetite mirrors John’s.
“Angelica†may disappoint genre fans with its mildness. Apart from a few creepy visitations and a stomach-turning sequence of Dr. Barton practicing vivisection, the movie is more suggestive than explicit with its horror.
But Malone is heartbreaking as a well-meaning woman whose marriage is spinning out of control; and Lichtenstein creates spaces around her that look as convincingly elegant as any big-budget literary adaptation. This is an alternately handsome and harrowing ghost story, about a civilized society haunted by its own unspeakable needs.
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‘Angelica’
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes
Playing: Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena
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