The Black Mass

I went in thinking this would be a campy slasher set in the time period that inspired it. Nope. This is a legitimately disturbing serial killer movie.

The soundtrack is of the era and upbeat enough to disarm the audience. The pace is slow, methodical, everything framed from the perspective of a man unnamed for the majority of the runtime. We get to know a group of college girls as he stalks them. The camera peers over his shoulder as he spies on them through their windows. Its all pretty uncomfortable stuff even before the inevitable killings.

I watched this at a small film festival at my local town and out of all the new films they showed, this is the one that really got under my skin. When the violence does finally occur it is blunt, ugly, unstylised and entirely believable. Not entertaining but excruciating. The film allows the audience to sympathise with these girls, but the voyeuristic camera work makes us an accomplice in the atrocities against them. A proper serial killer flick that leaves you feeling nasty. Not an easy watch.

Recommended for fans of Henry: Portait of a Serial Killer (1986), Angst (1983), and The Golden Glove (2019).