''Venus'' is a 2022 Spanish action

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...

directed by

Jaume Balagueró Jaume Balagueró Bernat (; born 2 November 1968) is a Spanish film director widely known for his horror films, most notably the acclaimed ''REC'' series. Early life Balagueró was born in Lleida, Spain, and grew up in Barcelona. He studied ...

, loosely inspired by H. P. Lovecraft's short story "

The Dreams in the Witch House "The Dreams in the Witch House" is a horror short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, part of the Cthulhu Mythos cycle. It was written in January/February 1932 and first published in the July 1933 issue of ''Weird Tales''. Plot Walter G ...

". It stars Ester Expósito.

Plot

Featuring according to Balagueró "terror, blood, aberrations and terribly bad people", the fiction is based on H. P. Lovecraft's "

", transferring the story to a "dirty, modern city" setting in the outskirts of Madrid, focusing on a cursed building in Villaverde Sur. Go-go dancer Lucía, on the run with a stash of pills and hunted by mobsters, takes sanctuary in an

apartment block A tower block, high-rise, apartment tower, residential tower, apartment block, block of flats, or office tower is a tall building, as opposed to a low-rise building and is defined differently in terms of height depending on the jurisdictio ...

with sister Rocío and niece Alba only to find out that malevolent supernatural forces are at play in the building.

Cast

Production

A part of 'The Fear Collection' horror film label, jointly set by Pokeepsie Films and Sony Pictures International Productions in association with

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming and Renting, rental service of Amazon (c ...

. The project was pitched at the

Sitges Film Festival The Sitges Film Festival ( ca, Festival Internacional de Cinema Fantàstic de Catalunya, links=no) is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Spain, specialized in fantasy and horror films, of which it is considered one of the world's foremost in ...

in October 2021, with the participation of the director

, star performer Ester Expósito as well as

Álex de la Iglesia Alejandro "Álex" de la Iglesia Mendoza (born 4 December 1965) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former comic book artist. De la Iglesia's films combine grotesque and very dark elements such as death and murder: most of his ...

Carolina Bang Carolina Herrera Bang (born 21 September 1985), professionally known as Carolina Bang, is a Spanish actress and producer. She is the best known to wider audience for her roles in Álex de la Iglesia's films ''The Last Circus'' (2010), ''As Luck W ...

, Ricardo Cabornero and Iván Losada. The screenplay was penned by Balagueró alongside Fernando Navarro. worked as cinematographer whereas was responsible for editing. Filming began in November 2021 in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. It moved to

Toledo Toledo most commonly refers to: * Toledo, Spain, a city in Spain * Province of Toledo, Spain * Toledo, Ohio, a city in the United States Toledo may also refer to: Places Belize * Toledo District * Toledo Settlement Bolivia * Toledo, Orur ...

afterwards, shooting in the Santa María de Benquerencia neighborhood ("El Polígono"). Filming had already wrapped in February 2022.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

's Midnight Madness section in September 2022. It will later have its US premiere at the Fantastic Fest. Likewise, it screened in the opening gala of the 55th

on 6 October 2022. It is set to be released theatrically in Spain on 2 December 2022 by

Sony Pictures Entertainment Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Sony Pictures or SPE, and formerly known as Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.) is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, ac ...

Reception

According to the American

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, ''Venus'' has a 77% approval rating based on 13 reviews from critics, with an average rating of 6.6/10. Meagan Navarro of ''

Bloody Disgusting Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...

'' rated the film 3½ stars deeming it to be a "slick and breezy action-horror movie far more memorable for its gruesome high-octane thrills than its cosmic chills". Shelagh Rowan-Legg of ''

ScreenAnarchy Screen Anarchy, previously known as Twitch Film or Twitch, is a Canadian English-language website featuring news and reviews of mainly international, independent and cult films. The website was founded in 2004 by Todd Brown. In addition to films ...

'' deemed the film to be "a highly enjoyable film with horror, crime, buckets of blood", "awesome crafty old ladies, a cute kid, and a kick-ass heroine". Raquel Hernández Luján of ''

HobbyConsolas ''HobbyConsolas'' is a Spanish video game magazine founded in 1991 by Hobby Press and published by Axel Springer SE. The first issue appeared in October 1990. The monthly magazine offers information about games for all consoles, and since 2012 ha ...

'' rated the film with 58 out of 100 points ("so-so"), highlighting Expósito's absolute commitment to her role and the solid production design as positive elements, while lamenting what little is left of the original story and the little amount of cosmic horror, also pointing out that the film could have benefited from taking itself less seriously. Ricardo Rosado of '' Fotogramas'' considered that the film, even if "replete with good intentions", struggles to find the right tone amid the

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

story, also assessing that Expósito does her best, bearing the weight of the scenes while the film struggles to find its audience. Also reviewing for ''Fotogramas'' Desirée de Fez rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, highlighting the film's "tribute to the (many) women of horror cinema" as well as Ester Expósito as the best things about the film, otherwise deeming the film to be "frenetic and brutal", bringing together the hallmark of Balagueró's works: "the search for poisoned images that conceptually and formally enclose horror". Miguel Ángel Romero of '' Cinemanía'' rated the film 3½ out of 5 stars, considering it to be a "triumphant" return of Balagueró to his horror origins, flaunting his ability to turn suspense into fantasy and horror.

References

External links

* {{Jaume Balagueró 2022 horror films 2020s Spanish films 2020s Spanish-language films 2020s supernatural horror films Films based on works by H. P. Lovecraft Films set in Madrid Films shot in Madrid Films shot in the province of Toledo Pokeepsie Films films Spanish horror thriller films Spanish supernatural horror films Films directed by Jaume Balagueró Films set in apartment buildings Films about sisters