A woman haunted by childhood trauma finds her life going down the toilet when she falls under the spell of a dream guru.
Odd mixture of sophistication and cliché. The first half sets up a maze of dreams through which the heroine moves in her attempt to come to terms with a horrifying event in the past, when her mother went crazy with a dagger. There are visual metaphors in the use of mirrors and doppelgangers, and prophetic artwork alongside visions that create a sense of déjà vu.
So, psychologically this is rich stuff, promising a deep reflection on the unconscious. It's also complemented with some impressive camera work - particularly a twisting pan shot as three characters descend a curved staircase to enter the guru's hall.
At the same time, the sound recording is quite poor, leaving the dialogue muffled, often lost in the ambient sounds on set. The music is a mixed bag, sometimes giving the same heightened tension you get in an over earnest soap opera.
And there's something off with the writing - hard to say what it is, but it seems to play through into the editing and a sense that the story is forced. At the halfway mark we get to meet the guru in a lavishly staged scene with dozens of extras creating good energy - but it all feels fake, and not in a nightmarish way.
After that I had a suspicion the carefully constructed psychological elements weren't going to pay off. Instead, the story becomes bizarrely literal, ending as many have noted on a Lovecrafty scenario.
Those comparing this to David Lynch don't understand David Lynch, whose weird imaginings map back on to ordinary lives and events, imbuing them with psychic energy. For me, that's far more imaginative than passively observing the awesome insignificance of human life bloodily etched out in apocalyptic rituals.
Overall: Starts out weird, ends up wired.
