In Fabric

Peter Strickland has taken an inspiration from M R James Whistle and I'll Come to You and given it a twist. In Fabric comes across as Dario Argento decided to make a kitchen sink drama in Britain.

Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is looking for a dress for a blind date. The shop assistant Miss Luckmore (Fatma Mohamed) a lady with a thick east european accent and a peculiar way of talking sells her an artery red dress with a mind of its own. It also is a bearer of bad fortune.

Sheila gets a rash and the washing machine dismantles when washing the dress. She has strange dreams and maybe her work is being affected. Sheila is a bank clerk who seems to be having weird appraisal meetings which includes being criticised that she has not shaken hands properly with someone.

Later the story switches to Reg (Leo Bill) and his fiance Babs (Hayley Squires.) Reg wore the dress as a prank for his drunken stag night and again they seemed cursed. He gets a rash, the washing machine falls apart. Reg who is a washing machine repairer gets fired by his employer for fixing his own machine without permission. Something about they provided him with the training.

In Fabric is a strange surreal film with influences that range from David Lynch, Dario Argento, Terry Gilliam to Ken Loach. It is set in some undefined time, but it looks like the 1980s. It makes a statement about consumerism and working in nightmarish bureaucratic organisations. The low cost airline Ryanair charge their pilots for their training. One day the pilots might go and work for someone else with the training they have provided to them.

The second half is certainly weaker and the change of cast is jarring. At times it is too weird for its own good. Maybe the film should had stuck with Sheila's story and then ended.

I had the opportunity to watch the preview with Q&A with Peter Strickland, and the useless questions from the audience, eager to show they had some knowledge and references instead of genuine questions, did not allow me to ask the director: why didn't you stop after the first half ? I enjoyed this first part, stylish, quite funny, and it could have ended like that, we had got it. The second half of the film was in my opinion un-necessary, adding nothing else to the plot and even making the movie feel too long. A bit like too little jam on too long a bread slice, it lost its taste, and became repetitive, over the top and I must say quite boring in the end. Sometimes, a short story is better than a novel. The things which are really FANTASTIC about this film are the soundtrack and music. You might want to watch it just for that!

The concept is interesting, but the film is really strange. It is not the regular horror film. It is artistic, and it is different.

Not too many stories about a killer dress. Yes, a dress that on a person gives looks that could kill, but not a lethal dress in itself. The real problem is that it is boring, and perhaps better appreciated by those intimate with the foibles of the British way. Sheila works at a bank, and it seems the bank has no end of interest in the most mundane actions of their employees. For instance, her work was great, but there was this little detail about her handshake, so they were giving here a brochure on how to do it properly. Or she waved back at a woman who was the mistress of one of the bank managers. That was looked upon as being insolent, as even the mistress should be properly regarded as a wife, and she failed that test. But she said the woman waved first. That is no excuse for not knowing the proper manner. One can get a feeling for Sheila who goes into a very snooty department store during their end of the year sale, and gets this great bargain in a dress. The model in the catalog who wore the dress died, and that dress carried with it a terrible haunting. Sheila's husband left her, and she was simply seeking a date for companionship, and the first date shown was terrible. The dress then goes on to another, but there is a less interesting story there. So one begins to seek out the ending, as it starts to get boring. Whether it is the script, or the pacing, or lack of focus, it loses it in the second half.

Definitely worth a watch, but as pointed by others, not for everyone. It carries a masterful arthouse 70's direction, editing, color scheme and production altogether, dressed up with weird, repetitive vintage synth tracks and some peculiar cuts at times beyond comprehension. At one point I thought the movie was stuck. It wasn't. You've been warned.