A Chronicle of Corpses (2001)

REVIEW
The liner notes that come with the DVD suggest A Chronicle of Corpses is a period slasher film. The back of the box has blurb, "a Bresson-meets-Bergman-meets-Wes Craven suspenser." Except it's nowhere near as good as any of those on their own.

A Chronicle of Corpses is about a decaying family of wealthy landowners in New England (I think). The film tries hard to show us they are a decadent, sinful bunch, whose self-indulgent--and therefore, as in all decadent literature, self-destructive--tendencies have angered the gods. (Actually, just one God. There is a priest in this film, played by the most conspicuously Jewish-looking fellow I've seen in a while.)

The destined destruction for this family comes primarily in the form of a mysterious murderer in the woods, who begins by killing the servants and then the family members themselves. Who could that mysterious bald lady be?

You'll find out in a lengthy, tight medium-shot soliloquy by the family's matriarch. Yes, a genuine soliloquy. This film is extremely stagey. For anyone who's seen the BBC Shakespeare series, there's a family resemblance. The dialogue is highly stylized and you have to be willing to accept that, otherwise the film will anger you considerably. You'll be constantly yelling, "Nobody talks like that!" People's mouths move, but they don't speak: a gush of what they should be feeling and thinking is expressed in highly-contrived prose.

Similarly, the camera tends to focus on monologue-performances. I would call them dialogues, but even with two people in the shot, they are strangely detached. They rarely look at one another. The camera is rarely moving, but letting these characters, standing in their contrived positions, in abstract spaces, speak their monologues.

The 'slasher' scenes are not much more effective than the (melo)drama scenes. The killer bops people on the head, but we never see the blow. The most horrific scene, in which a baby is butchered, is mildly jarring, but with absolutely no blood and only a single thrust, it's over soon.

There are a few things I did like. The film's patience reminded me of the European directors the DVD box claims it does. Antonioni and Bergman come to mind, as does Jacques Rivette a bit. The character of the matriarch, in her final soliloquy, did intrigue me: I wanted to learn more about her, but alas, it's an 83 minute slasher film. The one thing the film gets right is a general atmosphere of decadence, decay, morbidity--a character even specifically remarks on this. Yet, overall, it is a failure, neither fish nor fowl.

So, why am I covering this film in my Strange Horror Discoveries series? Because this is certainly a strange horror film. I don't believe I've ever seen a horror film done quite like this before. It has some sizable flaws, in my view, and don't believe they'll disappear with rewatching. But for its effort, for what it's trying to do and be, I applaud it.

I would only recommend A Chronicle of Corpses for more adventurous viewers who want to try something different, who tend to like arthouse pictures, and who don't mind films slow as treacle, stagey as Shakespeare.

FACTS
Director - Andrew Repasky McElhinney
Writer - McElhinney
Starring - Marj Dusay, Ryan Foley
2001
83 min.

WHERE TO GET IT
It's an Alpha New Cinema release. You can get it for only $1.98 on their site.

TIDBITS
This is something you should know: The film seems to have been shot in 1:1 ratio, so it's perfectly square. You have black border on all sides on the DVD. It's very odd, but I didn't find it too distracting.

Star Marj Dusay is a veteran television actress, and was even in an episode of Star Trek:TOS. Not surprisingly, she's the best actor in the film.
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