Spoilers like that one with the dogs playing cards.

Horror can be used to tell many stories. This one is a little bit satire, a little dark comedy and although it has horror in a way that feels vengeful there’s this lack of an antagonist and/or actual motivation that is both refreshing (no exposition moment) and at the same time dissonant in tone. Yes, supernatural is part of it but the identity/nature of whatever is at the heart of the bodies dropping is never revealed.

(Credit: Netflix)

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019) is written and directed by Dan Gilroy. An ensemble cast of eccentric characters including quirky art critic Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal), ruthless gallery owner Rhodora Haze (Rene Russo), her ambitious assistant Josephina (Zawe Ashton) as well as artists, collectors and would-be experts make up this film’s depiction of the bizarre world of high art in Los Angeles. Sometimes it’s obviously a satire but as part of the audience that has no idea what that world is like, I can’t speak for how close to the mark it hits.

The horror angle begins after Josephina sneaks into the apartment of a recently deceased neighbor. After hearing he was a secluded artist who has left instructions to have all his art destroyed, Josephina steals away a load of his paintings. The late artist’s body of work ends up impressing Morf and Rhodora, becoming the new must-see exhibition, selling like hotcakes. The art seems to have an eerie quality in which reality bends around it provoking death scenarios for some of the most prominent personalities of the art world meet their end.

The victims of the deadly art coming alive and getting executed seem to be people that were somehow involved with the late artist’s craft. However, the art that does come alive is often not the one belonging to the late artist. Actually more often than not, they’re not even paintings. This basically means anything and everything resembling art can appear and warp itself into some sort of death trap. For Josephina, an entire art gallery appears from nowhere. There is no particular identity to the incorporeal identity causing these deaths, so we don’t have a clear antagonist to fear. The character’s performances vary, but for the most part they are decent enough for us to either care enough to fear for them or hateful/annoying enough to want to see them killed.

Recommended with reservations. The performances are sound enough to either shine or at least be entertaining. The death and gore firmly put this film into the horror genre, although we are never given a face/body for the killer spirit behind it all. All in all it has enough of entertainment value if you’re not looking too deep into it. Worth a look but don’t buy anything.

That will do for now.