Knife + Heart Review (Film, 2018) #31DaysOfHorror
content warning: sexual content, nudity, blood, drug/alcohol abuse, sexual assault, violence against women, flashing lights
It’s 1979 and Anne works as a gay porn producer. Her girlfriend and editor Lois leaves her because of her self-destructive behavior. Anne dives deeper into her work than ever, preparing to create her most ambitious films yet. Then one of her actors is found murdered.
Knife + Heart is a queer horror film from writer/director Yann Gonzalez and screenwriter Cristiano Mangione. The film has a beautiful aesthetic, shifting between the negative world of the film prints and the duller colors of reality. The color footage from the film stock is also included in its original aspect ratio.
These scenes don’t just exist for their visual interest. You start to see that Anne’s vision is inspired by her life. One moment, Anne is in the police station being asked about the actor’s murder; the next, she’s observing a scene being shot where two police officers take advantage of a witness. Anne is a woman obsessed with her work in an effort to win back Lois with more fascinating footage than ever before. Her work defines her and her worthiness as a person and she will do anything to prove herself again.
This is a film that uses sex to tell a horror story. The killer in the film uses a sex toy with a switchblade knife inside as their murder weapon. They get the attention of the victim, lure them with the promise of sex, and then stab them with the weapon. The killer is targeting the actors on set, who you see perform similar acts before their murders.
Knife + Heart is a throwback style of thriller. This is the kind of film in the late 1960s to mid-1970s that turned into the slasher over time. It’s driven by investigation and suspense as much as the murder, but the murder scenes tend to be the most elaborate sequences.
The difference here is the focus. Knife + Heart is queer cinema. This style of film could not focus on LGBTQIA2S+ culture and have any chance of mainstream distribution or reach in the 1970s. Any content about this was implied, a mere suggestion, if it had any chance of playing outside of a much smaller market. This is not to say that no films like this could exist at the time; they would not have the reach of a film like Knife + Heart has now.
Knife + Heart is a celebration of the horror/thriller film through a queer lens. It is a mature film for an adult audience because of it subject matter, but its subject matter is how it chooses to celebrate a specific place and time in film from a perspective that really couldn’t thrive at the time.
Knife + Heart is streaming on Shudder.
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