A close-up of a pulsing human brain opens Lorenzo Bianchini's low budget horror flick. Onscreen text offers some haughty ponderings on the good and evil angels that are locked in constant turmoil within our subconscious ...
But then, the film starts proper and thankfully the pretension dies down as we meet a TV camera crew who are eagerly trying to interview the relatives of three teenaged boys that disappeared three days earlier.
The TV crew catches up with a hard-nosed detective who has been scouring the lads' school for evidence. He reveals he has uncovered a bricked-up area in the school's basement, where he believes the bodies of the boys may be found.
An onscreen caption then takes us to "Five Days Before". We meet the three boys - geeky Asma, punker Nico and cool dude Max.
The lads sit bored through a maths exam, and receive a scalding from the lecturer when they attempt to cheat. Afterwards, they sneak a crafty cigarette in the toilets and hatch a plan to break into the school that evening, locate the test answers and replace their own exam sheets with new ones. Unfortunately they are unaware of someone hiding in a nearby cubicle, listening in.
That night, the boys meet and make a torchlit break-in to the school. As they split up to raid various classrooms, a figure darts across the screen to let us know they're not alone.
Max and Nico bump into each other after much creeping about, and set about finding the missing Asma. He has the test papers on him, after all.
However, when they spy the caretaker doing an inspection of the premises, the boys scarper - assuming Asma has already done the same.
The following morning Max and Nico learn that not only has Asma failed to turn in for school, but he did not return home the previous evening. Paranoid that they may become implicated in something bigger than mere breaking and entering, the boys plan to revisit the school that night and return all the stuff they stole.
Big mistake. The caretaker is the least of their problems, as they discover more than they bargained for within the school's walls ...
LIDRIS... is a competently made horror-thriller that thankfully relies on slow-burning tension and creepy atmosphere, rather than shock tactics and overt gore. The performances from the adolescent cast are decent, as is the photography and use of coloured, Argento-esque lighting. Where Bianchini scores points is in his desire to create an ambience of fear, rather than bow down to formulaic thrills.
On a negative side, the score is too obvious and nudging in it's need to be spooky, and the whole thing is overlong - not to mention a tad predictable.
But Bianchini must be applauded for engineering a film that, despite being shot on digital video, is very stylishly shot. It's generally restrained - letting the story unfold at it's own pace, allowing the great location of an empty school's long dark corridors to become the main character and villain of the piece. Only occasionally does Bianchini cock things up by resorting to showy camera work and unnecessary gimmicks such as stylised editing and slow-motion.
Considering it's budget, LIDRIS... is a respectable attempt at atmospheric horror that plays akin to a cross between SESSION 9 and SUSPIRIA.
The disc is decent too. The film is presented uncut in it's original 1.85:1 matted ratio (although one scene is shown in 1.33:1), and looks reasonably sharp and bright. The Italian 2.0 audio track is similarly clear, with well-produced removable subtitles available in Italian and English.
The film can be accessed via 17 chapters, by way of an attractive animated menu page.
Extras include a 40-minute short film from Bianchini entitled DINCJ DE LUNE. It's a fairly well told tale of a werewolf whose curse has survived for over 100 years. It's throwaway hokum, marginally entertaining ... but most will have seen the "twist" ending coming within the opening 5 minutes.
A 1-minute trailer for LIDRIS... is brief, and doesn't do a good job of highlighting the film's strengths.
A trailer for another Bianchini film, CUSTODES BESTIA, is 2 minutes long and looks interesting - possibly more stylish than LIDRIS.
Finally, we get 15 minutes' worth of amiable outtakes footage culled from the LIDRIS shoot.
Bianchini, given a decent budget and a few rolls of 35 film, could provide the injection in the arm the Italian horror industry needs right now. LIDRIS certainly shows potential, despite it's occasional flaws. Worth a look.
Review by Stuart Willis
| Released by |
| Region All - PAL |
| Not Rated |
| Extras : |
| see main review |