Get Out! was Allison Williams’ first feature film starring role. Playing the unsuspected villain, she was incredibly believable. Then I saw M3GAN where her role was again not exactly that of protagonist. Curious, I decided to watch The Perfection, the horror film between the two in which she also stars. As always, she starts out looking innocent enough, but this film has so many twists that you might be left feeling a bit dizzy when it’s over. Williams plays Charlotte, a gifted cellist at the prestigious Bachoff Academy. Forced to leave by her mother’s stroke, Charlotte became a full-time caregiver, leaving her promising career behind. She’s superseded by Lizzie, whom she meets in Shanghai as the two are judging a scholarship contest for a new Bachoff student competition. Lizzie and Charlotte hit it off and travel across China together. Lizzie, however, falls ill and has to have her hand amputated.
A flashback reveals Charlotte tricked Lizzie into that situation so that the Bachoff star cellist would no longer be useful to the academy. Another flashback shows why: Anton Bachoff has devised a horrid punishment for making mistakes while playing. While this is disturbing enough, it takes place in “the chapel”—a room designed with perfect acoustics—and is done to please “God.” This set-up has been operating for years and Charlotte was rescuing Lizzie from it, albeit in a rather extreme way. The two cellists team up to bring Anton down. There are quite a few holes in the plot and rape revenge films are one of the kinds I tend to avoid. Still, the integration of religion with the horror is intriguing here. One of the opening establishing shots is a close-up of a crucifix. Sacrifice is indeed a theme of the film.
Critical opinion was mixed, but mostly positive. The plot twists get you thinking that Williams is again playing the unexpected villain, and in a way she is. Still, the real villain is a man who manipulates religious rhetoric (God demands perfection) in order to supply him with access to talented young women. When they achieve international stardom, they’re not inclined to join #MeToo and lose everything because Anton is not only wealthy, but highly respected in classical music circles. This is an odd sort of horror thriller that works on some levels but that leaves you feeling violated on another. It doesn’t play out the religion element in any detail, which would’ve been helpful. At least it would to a certain kind of viewer, who’s trying to figure out how this all fits together.
