Kriya

You know you’re in trouble right from Kriya‘s insufferable opening moments, a seemingly endless nightclub scene with such aggressive strobing that it’s pretty much guaranteed to cause eye discomfort (this was literally the only time during the festival I was glad to be watching a film at home rather than in a movie theatre, where the effect likely would have been excruciating). The film subsequently improves (because there’s nowhere to go but up from there), but the questionable opening is indicative of a movie that just never quite works. About a hapless DJ who finds himself in the middle of a potentially sinister ritual when he follows a girl home, the film is entrancing in parts, with the occasional very brief flourish of hypnotic style, but is mostly just tedious. It isn’t nearly creepy enough to work as a horror movie, it often feels clumsily constructed, and the dramatic elements are way too flimsy to work on their own merits — so what’s the point? Why tell this particular story, and why should I spend 96 minutes watching it?

*1/2 out of ****