Discovering that your loved one has been cheating on you is scary. Confronting them while in the throes of a reality-distorting dream, where weeks pass in an instant and animals talk, is a little worse. This is the shamefully distilled premise of the surreal, unpredictable Animals (Tiere), which screened this week at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.
A basic look at the film’s synopsis and motifs suggests a psychological thriller about infidelity—not exactly a new concept in cinema. Our protagonists, author Anna and her charming but devious husband Nick, move to a remote house in Switzerland for a getaway, but things soon start going wrong. Anna’s perception of time distorts as she seeks proof of Nick’s affair. Lies become dangerous. A locked door in their rented house might be hiding something. And since when did cats speak French? Are we being gaslighted along with Anna, or is there a darker truth underneath?
From the film’s first image and the unsettling montage that follows, we understand that something is wrong. The dialogue is well-calibrated to induce quietly building dread. The crisp, wide-angle photography is filled with bizarre details, such as a fish eating his dead tankmate and a suicidal flip book. It’s shot through with a dose of macabre humor as well, emphasized by a sparsely used but atmospherically perfect score.
While the first third is intriguing and suspenseful, the film truly finds its footing when it loses all sense of reality. With its blunt, absurdist dialogue and clever visual tricks, Animals manages to completely destroy all predictions regarding the plot’s direction. Its twists of perspective and match cuts are well-timed and sometimes viscerally shocking. The script—and the lead actors’ ability to deliver their lines with deadpan realism—is full of surprising metaphysical clues that draw us deeply into Anna’s confusion. All of this manages to be funny and creepy at once, sometimes (but not often) crossing the border into pure horror.
The film is also loaded with multiple plots, though, and at times the twists of time become tiresome. A dual narrative with the couple’s housesitter is compelling, but at times entirely disconnected, almost lifted from a different film. Some may find the structure repetitive, even nonsensical—which certainly it is. There’s a gleefulness that makes even the most frustratingly weird scenes entertaining, though, and in the end it keeps its emotional core intact. Birgit Minichmayr gives Anna an awkward, endearing sadness, which becomes heartbreaking as her world crumbles. She’s being kept in the dark—quite literally—and Nick’s lies may have consequences.
Cinematically gorgeous and delightfully weird, Animals manages to create a journey into unreality that’s scary, amusing, and ultimately tragic. Its absurdist atmosphere and command over its metaphysics make it compelling, even if the story doesn’t quite congeal. For those seeking a truly unusual experience infused with honest emotion, look for this one on the horizon.
Movie Score: 3.5/5
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Keep an eye on Daily Dead for more coverage of the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival, and check here for our previous news, reviews, and interviews for the festival.
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