Spirit of the Beehive

genuinely shocked by its effortlessly harrowing beauty: lonesome barren landscapes, a permanent sense of longing/yearning and insidious dread -- even lowkey apocalyptic vibes, i might say, depending on your mood --, cinema's most impressive and touching child performances. i've never seen a film getting so close to what's like being a kid in a world soaked in images of horror -- real/fabricated/imagined. some scenes will stay with me forever: blood as lipstick, isabel pretending to be dead and trying to scare ana in frankenstein-style, every shot with ana's eyes/staring at the well, those entrancing last ten, fifteen minutes that hit me like, idk, mbv's loveless. (yes, shoegazing cinema at its best.)