Director: Alejandro Fadel 

Starring: Victor Lopez, Esteban Bigliardi, Tania Casciani 

Cult status awaits this visually impressive but elusively allegorical supernatural thriller set in rural Argentina, pitched somewhere between Guillermo del Toro and David Lynch. 

Newcomer Lopez is Cruz, a police officer in a remote region close to the Andes, investigating the case of a decapitated woman. Farmer David (Bigliardi), whose wife Francisca (Casciani), Cruz is having an affair with, is the prime suspect. David is sent to a mental hospital where he rants about a monster who beheads its victims after they utter the titular request. Huge teeth and gooey dark saliva stains that were found on the victim’s body suggest there may be something in it. Then other headless female victims are found and the investigation takes increasingly strange turns as Cruz’s methods become more unorthodox and strange. 

Beginning with a gory beheading immediately undercut with a pinch of pitch black humour, Fadel’s picture boasts some strikingly dreamlike, murky and potent imagery, while the creature, which may or not be real, is an all-bases-covering multi-appendaged Freudian nightmare. Despite a memorably clammy atmosphere and genuinely disturbing moments, the meaning remains a little too oblique and ultimately frustrating. Arthouse horror fans will find much to admire though.

Murder Me, Monster is available to stream now.

David Willoughby

Follow David at @DWillCrackfilm