After launching a home-invasion franchise with the simple premise of three masked figures terrorizing a couple on the rocks, “The Strangers” creator Bryan Bertino has maintained his sensibility as a writer-director, spinning other original horror chamber pieces unmoored by sympathy. Now, the horror helmer’s latest effort shows characteristic daring in its detachment.
Generically titled “Vicious,” the film offers a spare setup — a depressed young woman is wracked by hallucinations — with little definition of what is afflicting her or why. The writer-director doesn’t solicit sympathy for Polly (played by Dakota Fanning) or impose meaning on her suffering. It’s a very naked approach to horror, entirely propped up
→ Continue reading at Variety
