In Peter Strickland’s spectacular homage to giallo, a single mother buys a discounted blood-red dress, unaware of its killing power.
In 1980s’ Britain, Sheila buys an blood-red dress on sale at a department store. Although it seems to fit her perfectly, it does not take long until Sheila becomes aware of the threat posed by her new garment: the dress causes traffic accidents, starts fires, crawls on the floor, and flies, and all that to try and murder its owner.
Stylistically, Peter Strickland’s new horror film has its roots in Italian giallo, which has allowed critics to draw a comparison with Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria (2018) and conclude that Strickland was actually able to create a better homage to Dario Argento’s classic of the same name. At the same time, building on the tradition of British social realism as represented by Mike Leigh, In Fabric is a sharp critique of consumer society: after all, if we consumed less, perhaps, the devilish dress would have stayed in the shop.
In Fabric
Director: Peter Strickland
UK, 2018. 118 min. 18+