I can't say that I've ever seen eroticism and horror combined successfully before. And having seen Claire Denis' Trouble Every Day...I still can't say it. But then again, Trouble Every Day isn't really a "horror film." Mostly it's just a film that uses the aesthetic trappings of the genre to tell a story where terrible and grisly things happen to unfortunate people. But that's the problem: I'm not sure what Denis was trying to accomplish with the film. Is it a film condemning sexual hysteria? Monogamy? Deviancy? Is it trying to scare? Well, Denis' elliptical narrative obscures any chance for the audience to become engaged on the visceral level necessary for truly effective horror. Is it simply an aesthetic exercise? Well, Agnès Godard's cinematography is too damn dark, too damn obscured, and too damn sterile for it to be an appealing piece of film-making from a craftsmanship point of view. The only truly disturbing things in this movie are the soul-shattering screeches of the victims while they are being raped and mutilated. After that, the gore and guts just seems passé.
6/10
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