**CONTAINS ONLY MINOR SPOILERS that don't reveal anything vital**
I love rape-revenge movies. I loved "I Spit On Your Grave" (the original), I loved "Ms. 45" and, also worth mentioning as a rape-revenge albeit entirely different from the typical example of the genre: "Irreversible".
"Lust" succeeds at the rape-revenge elements, but fails at being scary. This would have been entirely fine had the film striven to be a pure rape-revenge (s)exploitation; but, rather, it tries to be both a horror and an exploitation, and ends up being what I would refer to as a headless chicken.
The first part of "Lust" is highly mediocre. There are a few jump-scares as we are introduced to Lisa's troubled existence of pills and alcohol. I won't say too much about the plot here, but yes: she has been raped in the past and is now suffering from PTSD and delusions.
The second part, however, is more promising. In certain moments there is even true eeriness present, a rawness I haven't seen in any Norwegian film to date. But this drowns rather quickly in what I feel is the attempt to sustain a horror feel. Eskeland should have made the film a pure rape-revenge, focusing on the more traumatic aspects of the actual rape and on the subsequent revenge, as opposed to focusing on classic horror tension building. The scene where Lisa vomits in the shower after trying to masturbate and get back a healthy association to sex, is a nice touch I would have liked to see more of instead of her screaming in the mirror and attempting suicide and so on.
The film would do nicely with an extra rape scene of some length and a whole second act as the revenge part.
Overall "Lust" is worth watching for fans of the genre. Eskeland deserves respect for having the balls to go that extra mile with the violence compared to other Norwegian films (and to not make it completely tacky in the process). But the extreme revenge scenes, that make up the core of rape-revenge films, were far too few and brief.
"Lust" is a great effort. Hopefully this will pave the way for a true Norwegian "tour de force" at some point down the road.
6/10
I love rape-revenge movies. I loved "I Spit On Your Grave" (the original), I loved "Ms. 45" and, also worth mentioning as a rape-revenge albeit entirely different from the typical example of the genre: "Irreversible".
"Lust" succeeds at the rape-revenge elements, but fails at being scary. This would have been entirely fine had the film striven to be a pure rape-revenge (s)exploitation; but, rather, it tries to be both a horror and an exploitation, and ends up being what I would refer to as a headless chicken.
The first part of "Lust" is highly mediocre. There are a few jump-scares as we are introduced to Lisa's troubled existence of pills and alcohol. I won't say too much about the plot here, but yes: she has been raped in the past and is now suffering from PTSD and delusions.
The second part, however, is more promising. In certain moments there is even true eeriness present, a rawness I haven't seen in any Norwegian film to date. But this drowns rather quickly in what I feel is the attempt to sustain a horror feel. Eskeland should have made the film a pure rape-revenge, focusing on the more traumatic aspects of the actual rape and on the subsequent revenge, as opposed to focusing on classic horror tension building. The scene where Lisa vomits in the shower after trying to masturbate and get back a healthy association to sex, is a nice touch I would have liked to see more of instead of her screaming in the mirror and attempting suicide and so on.
The film would do nicely with an extra rape scene of some length and a whole second act as the revenge part.
Overall "Lust" is worth watching for fans of the genre. Eskeland deserves respect for having the balls to go that extra mile with the violence compared to other Norwegian films (and to not make it completely tacky in the process). But the extreme revenge scenes, that make up the core of rape-revenge films, were far too few and brief.
"Lust" is a great effort. Hopefully this will pave the way for a true Norwegian "tour de force" at some point down the road.
6/10
