The Butterfly Room

I had no idea what to expect with this movie. An insane and homicidal woman pays a teenaged girl so she can pretend she is her mother. Well, I'll give it credit for a storyline I've never seen before. The cast really shines well here, by the way. I can't say I'm a good judge of acting, but I can say that I was held captive by the principal actors performance. The movie lost a few marks at the end though. Mostly for some character actions and sequences that didn't exactly make sense, but overall it was still an enjoyable movie.

Butterflies are so delicate, yet so strong to endure their long migrations around the world. In the Butterfly Room, the story hinges on Ann (Barbara Steele) who is a strong, elegant, reclusive and centers her life around her butterfly collection. She captures and mounts them in her "butterfly room". During her days, she has flashbacks to her daughter and all the while she befriends a little girl to fill her empty nest syndrome. The Butterfly Room is a spooky tale where all is not what it seems. This psychological thriller keeps you glued to a shifting dynamics of this gentile collector. It is sure to make you think twice the next time you see a flawless butterfly.

The Butterfly Room: Ann, a nasty anti-social who has an obsession with pinning butterflies decides to move on to larger prey. A line of dark humour runs through the film leavening the worse moments as she sprays people with acid and kicks ladders from under them. But there are still quite a few disturbing scenes and this is not a film for the squeamish. Various people who cross her come to a gruesome end. Confusing at times as there are flashbacks within flashbacks but the disjointed timeline adds to the tension. Barbara Steele is great as the irritable Ann with Julia Putnam as Alice a grifter schoolgirl. A couple of interesting plot twists will make you reconsider parts of the jumbled narrative. Directed and Co-Written by Jonathan Zarantonello, based on Zarantonello's short filml Alice dalle 4 alle 5 (Alice from 4 to 5). 7/10.

Showing again on Friday 8th April at 10.50 PM on the Horror Channel.

😱 First Impressions: From the synopsis I thought it'd play out from the victim's perspective when she befriends the old lady for the first time. I was genuinely surprised that Ann instead was the main star.

Pros: 😋 Actress who plays Ann is very brilliant- she immediately exudes all the characteristics that make her character to be 'off' the moment we see her. It does not wear off until the credits roll...

😋 The story is well written and I could feel immense sympathy for the main character / antagonist. Who is mentally unstable yet emotionally (and financially) manipulated by the girls that ironically she eventually preys on.

😋 There are some very unusual kills in the movie. A constant air of creepiness and threat that never unsettles because you know never know what might happen next.

Cons: 😪 I had some reservations about the way the movie jumps back and forth between the past and present. Sometimes it does so without indication (which is great) but others it blatantlys uses a 'rewind' effect which just spells it out for the audience.

😪 The plot while quite original- I could actually see coming; a whole hour away when it came to the fate of the first girl. Yes, it's still shocking when it is eventually revealed but I thought it could have been handled better.

😪 The child actors and actresses sometime just ruin the scenes. That's not to say they don't shine either! They have their moments especially the actress who plays Alice who is probably the oldest among the children so it's understandable. Nothing too distracting though~

😇Verdict😈 I thoroughly enjoyed the unnerving and at the same time melancholic story of Ann. The pride and effort she takes in maintaining her collection is frightening. The only issue I had were some qualms about the direction and creative decisions. Overall, a solid thriller with a memorably developed antagonist who just for all we know needed some therapy and pills. It's so sad.

"The Butterfly Room" is a curiosity for the extraordinary casting it features of actresses from famous horror movies. There's Heather Langenkamp, from "Nightmare of Elm St", Adrienne King from "Friday the 13th", P.J. Soles from "Halloween", Camille Keaton from "I Spit on Your Grave". But of course, the real star of the show is Barbara Steele, who is famous for her roles in gothic horror films such as Mario Bava's "Black Sunday".

Other than that, it doesn't have much going for it. The story is undercut by liberal flashbacks that don't really add a whole lot, and a plot that is pretty badly told besides.

I kept watching basically for Steele's performance. Here, in her mid-seventies, she is still a magnetic performer.