Director: Nicolas Pesce
Writer: Nicolas Pesce (Screenplay) Ryu Murakami (Novel)
Starring: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Maria Dizzia, Olivia Bond, Wendell Pierce
Plot: A man kisses his wife and baby goodbye and seemingly heads away on business, with a plan to check into a hotel, call an escort service, and kill an unsuspecting prostitute.
Tagline – Practice Doesn’t Always Make Perfect
Runtime: 1 Hour 21 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Falls Short
Story: Piercing starts when Reed (Abbott) leaves his wife Mona (Costa) and baby daughter for work, checking into a hotel room, he is planning on killing a random prostitute, when she arrives, he has the whole technique planned out to work perfectly. The prostitute he receives is Jackie (Wasikowska) who goes through what they could do, which soon sees her stabbing herself, giving Reed his chance to complete his murder.
When the night takes another twist, Reed isn’t prepared for what Jackie has planned for him, something that will completely shock him.
Thoughts on Piercing
Characters – Reed is a businessman, husband and wife that has been hearing a voice telling him who to kill, his latest is a prostitute, he has planned everything, only to find himself struggling when things go wrong. Jackie is the prostitute that has been called for the night with Reed, she has her own vices, which ruin the plans for Reed, she self-harms, which sees her needing help through the night. Mona is the wife of Reed who has seen her husband go off to work, while she looks after their baby.
Performances – Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska are both solid enough through the film without needing to do that much more in the film, it relies on the weird over anything else.
Story – The story here follows a man that hires a prostitute with plans to kill her, only for the night to take a dramatic twist. Now with this story, things do come off very strange, it seems like it is going one direction, only for it to go another and leave us feeling kind of empty with everything that happens, this is a story that wants to explode, only it just seems to fizzle out to nothing.
Horror/Mystery – The horror in this film is more about what could happen, rather than anything happening, with a mystery about who is talking to Reed, which never seems to get answered.
Settings – The film uses the hotel rooms mostly for the settings, which show how the murder could happen, learning the environment, only for nothing else to come from this.
Special Effects – The effects in the film are more about almost seeing violence, only it doesn’t seem to be a strong as it should be.
Scene of the Movie – The preparation.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The final act.
Final Thoughts – This is a horror mystery that starts so promisingly, only for it to end up not doing much once it gets going.
Overall: Fizzles Out.
