A father is scheming to have his slightly mental daughter from an earlier marriage killed by allowing a murderous psychopath to be released from the asylum and led to his house. However, the psychopath and the daughter fall for each other.
Direction
Ruiz's labyrinthine staging turns every room into a trap.
Acting
Zylberstein's unhinged fragility meets Giraudeau's controlled menace.
Cinematography
Baroque compositions that mock the very idea of 'normal' framing.
Director
Raúl Ruiz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Raúl Ruiz adapted this from a BBC radio play by Robert Louis Stevenson, of all people—yes, Treasure Island guy wrote pitch-black family horror.
The film's theatrical artificiality is deliberate: Ruiz wanted audiences conscious they were watching constructed madness, not 'real' psychology.
FR
