Director: Richard Shepard

Writers: Richard Shepard, Eric Charmelo, ad Nicole Snyder

Starring: Allison Williams, Logan Browning, Steven Weber, Alaina Huffman

Rating: ★★★★½ 

The Perfection is a dark psychological horror that really gets under your skin, straight from the start with its striking and captivating opening right through to its mesmerising ending. It creates an incredibly uncomfortable and creepy atmosphere and is an excellent horror film.

After taking a decade away from music, to look after her dying mother, former child prodigy cellist Charlotte (Allison Williams) reaches out to her old teacher, Anton (Steven Weber), and joins him in Shanghai to help pick out a new student. While she’s there Charlotte meets Lizzie (Logan Browning), another of Anton’s students. At first there’s a jealousy as Charlotte feels that Lizzie was her replacement, but the two connect and end up travelling China together, until Lizzie starts to feel sick and things take a turn for the worse.

Director and co-writer Richard Shepard perfectly creates and unsettling atmosphere right from the opening scene. There’s jump cuts and a chilling score that sets up the film perfectly. It’s abrasive in a way that makes you pay attention and that this isn’t just another horror film. It instantly tells you that things aren’t going to be okay. Then the film almost turns into a drama for most of it’s first act, as Charlotte and Lizzie get to know each other. It lulls you into a false sense of security, even if the opening is still lingering in your mind, then it all clicks into place, and everything gets going. There’s twist after twist, a building sense of dread that keeps you guessing what’s going to happen next. Whatever direction you think the film is heading in, it goes somewhere else.

Allison Williams and Logan Browning are both excellent in the film. Their chemistry is great from the first moment they share together. The score from Paul Haslinger is great and sets the scene perfectly. The only let down is that some of the effects look kind of cheap and aren’t that believable, but while it has some gross-out moments, it’s not the main focus. The plot does veer towards being unbelievable with all of the twists, but it all still works and you never reach a point that takes you out of the film.

Since its release on Netflix in 2019, The Perfection, has slipped off the radar. It’s really something special and more than worth seeking out. It’s a stylish horror and is something that will stay with you for a long time after the credits start to roll.

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