Dark film exposes Jeffrey Epstein’s house of horrors

Jeffrey Epstein is a monster, and his cursed soul lives in The Scariness of Sixty-First, a wild return to indie style (December 3 in LA; December 17 in New York; December 24 on VOD) deftly crosses the line between the serious giallo homage and weird thematic jokes. Directed and co-written by Dasha Nekrasova (by Heir famous), it uses the late pedophile oligarch’s crimes as the launchpad for the sapphic Italian thriller, delivering the eerie blend of sincerity and goofiness that has marked Nekrasova as an author. Filmmaking talent worth watching.

Count Suspiria, Go beyond and Repulsion as some of its many carved stones, The Scariness of Sixty-First focuses on twenty friends Noelle (Madeline Quinn) and Addie (Betsey Brown) who move into an Upper East Side apartment in Manhattan, which comes with old, glitzy furniture from the previous tenant, as well as a the Murphy bed with a mattress, we’ll soon find out, is covered in mysterious stains. While cleaning the place, they found a collection of rancid and expired food, which led Noelle to criticize Addie for her “poor mindset” (because she refused financial support from people). rich father), and forced Addie to cleanse the bad energy in his bedroom. by burning incense. More ominously, Noelle stumbles upon a tarot card “The Sun” in her bathroom cabinet, while spy Addie swipes marks on the interior walls of her closet and stares blankly. uncomfortable in the mirror placed on the ceiling directly above her air mattress.

There’s something awful about this abode, and that impression is amplified right from the start by Nekrasova, whose opening credits sequence is a collection of creepy close-up shots of carved faces carved gargoyles and cherry angels on the facade of an apartment building in New York City, and gazes down (and aerial shot) of the city’s gray streets and skyline. In a way not unlike Peter Strickland (In fabric), the director works in transparent Dario Argento mode, which is full of fake 16mm prints and a heavy score to give the proceedings a vintage vibe. That’s all the more emphasized by the story itself, about two young beauties who come to shop in a lovely new home filled with eerie doorways, cold hallways, and creepy basements, only to discover. – with the aid of a mysterious stranger – that something supernatural is going on up there and has a tendency to devour them alive.

The intruder in Addie and Noelle’s lives ends up being an unnamed woman played by Nekrasova (here referred to as “the girl”) who bursts into the duo’s apartment while Noelle is at home and right away. immediately revealed that it was once a “flat roof house”. by none other than Jeffrey Epstein. “Perhaps he keeps his slaves here,” she chose within minutes of meeting Noelle, and the sheer candor as she introduced this twist — and began handing out all sorts of details. about her “investigation” into Epstein’s sex crimes — both amusing and amusing in harmony with the generally dreamlike atmosphere evoked by Nekrasova. Correct giallo form, The Scariness of Sixty-First exists in a surreal context of terror and lust, premonitions and paranoia, and therefore the finest quality of this Epstein bombshell is no different; on the contrary, it proves a natural fit, given Epstein’s own links to the Pizzagate-ish kind of madness Satan panics often promote horror movies like this.

With an amusingly frank face, Nekrasova’s girl declared, “I’m not like ordinary people. I am obsessed with political struggle.” Turns out, she’s also a source Epstein conspiracy theory who distrusts the federal government, believes that the financier was murdered rather than committed suicide, and is curious about the “pedophile island” in the Caribbean that he owns, which YouTube videos show has a square structure covered with suspicious blue and white lines. Such motifs will reappear later in The Scariness of Sixty-First, which only gets worse once Addie is under a damn spell in her apartment. Rejected by Noelle (whom she went to college with), Addie finds solace in the arms of her failed boyfriend Greg (Mark Rapaport), with whom she is terrified of having sex with her. way of asking him to pretend she’s underage — culminating with the demon — asking to say, “Fuck me like I’m 13!”

Epstein’s pedophilia infected Addie, who was masturbating wildly on the steps of the billionaire’s other NYC properties, sucking her thumb as if she were sucking something else entirely. , and angrily rubs his crotch with articles and Prince Andrew’s photo. Finally bathed in dazzling red light, The Scariness of Sixty-First is a simultaneously brazen and tongue-in-cheek criticism of Epstein and Andrew as lewd predators who appear to have carried out their illegal activities in the five apartment buildings whose location is they, together, make up a geographical pentagram of Satan. Amidst the sex and snooping — including the discovery that Addie placed a commemorative silver spoon at Andrew and Fergie’s wedding! — Nekrasova’s Girl tells about Epstein’s reign of terror and the pedophile underworld in which it was exposed, “This is our 9/11. It’s an exaggeration of hilarious absurdity, with Nekrasova combining fantasy and reality, solemnity and deadlock, to overwhelming effect.

A visit to a magic potion that leads to the purchase of an obsidian stone is also a factor in this spooky tale. Upon hearing that Addie loved all things British, Nekrasova’s girl commented, “Anglophilia is one thing, but pedophilia…”, to which Noelle replied, “What kind of goddamn bootlicker comes to royalty… ?” Nekrasova and Quinn’s script smears Andrew’s alleged guilt in the audience’s face, through Addie behaving vulgarly in his image, and with an end of ritual sacrifice and murder. evil mix of old school style with modern wit.

Clearly, The Scariness of Sixty-First It won’t go well at Buckingham Palace, but its use of violence and real-world notoriety to stone B-movies is warranted, thanks in large part to the stewardship of Nekrasova, who has a knack for the illogical. The nocturnal disorientation of the 70s and 80s mining efforts. Her film directorial debut can sometimes be seen as a porno, but nonetheless it’s a stellar success that shows she has even more daring work to do in the future.