A Classic Horror Story

Directed by Roberto De Feo and Paolo Strippoli, A Classic Horror Story follows a disparate group of characters, including Matilda Lutz’s Elisa and Will Merrick’s Mark, as they find themselves under attack by a mysterious, sinister group of faceless villains. It’s a familiar setup that’s initially employed to decidedly (and frustratingly) underwhelming effect by De Feo and Strippoli, as the picture’s first half suffers from a deliberate and egregiously generic sensibility that’s compounded by a total lack of compelling characters – with one’s total boredom sporadically staved off by a smattering of appreciatively bleak, gruesome kill sequences. There’s little doubt, as well, that A Classic Horror Story‘s far-from-captivating vibe is, at the outset, perpetuated by an emphasis on surreal happenings, as De Feo and Strippoli have infused certain portions of the proceedings with an is-any-of-this-real-or-is-it-just-purgatory bent that proves fairly disastrous (ie it’s hard to work up much sympathy for the characters’ perilous exploits within such a context). It’s clear, then, that the movie benefits from a final third that completely turns the situation on its head, although the admittedly intriguing developments ultimately arrive far too late to make any real difference in A Classic Horror Story‘s overall impact – which, when coupled with an eye-rollingly silly and smug final scene, cements the film’s place as an almost successful endeavor that just doesn’t entirely work.

** out of ****

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