Title: Dariuss
Director: Guerrilla Metropolitana
Producer: Guerilla Metropolitana
Special Effects: Guerilla Metrpolitana
Cast: Ila Argento, Marie Antoinette de Robespierre, Sarah Isabel, Archibald Kane, Guerrilla Metropolitana, Medusa S and Stella
Released By: SRS Cinema
Release Date: 2023
The Premise
“The loss of a young girl… her family… devastated. A remote home in the quiet English countryside of Essex… each affected family member deals with much pain and loss differently. A hand camera, a woman, high heels, hair scalps and a child. What such a terrible tragedy can cause to an ordinary middle-class family is unbelievable. An unspeakable, sickening and perverse cinematographic voyage of blood, bodily fluids and madness… like never seen before. Partially filmed with the use of “meta-cinema” and “guerrilla filmmaking style” to recreate a whole new shocking level of ultra-realism, where underground and dark erotica blend together in a unique way and where the author/director creates a “mirror effect” story… with no room for sanity. This is… DARIUSS!!”
When a viewer starts down the path of watching deeper and darker subversive cinema because mainstream cinema has a hard time holding their attention, the corridors found can take someone down to levels of depravity that are just that: gore for gore’s sake, mindless cruelty and a want to induce vomiting for the fun of it. There are a few films out there in the darker realms that actually are thought provoking and open a window of illumination into what horrors actually walk behind us in the shadows, movies like Jorg Buttgereit’s NEKROMANTIK (1988), Lucio A. Rojas’ TRAUMA (2017), Srdjan Spasojevic’s A SERBIAN FILM (2010), Jacob Green’s VEXANTHRONE (2024) and Stephen Biro’s AMERICAN GUINEA PIG: BOUQUET OF GUTS AND GORE (2014) are all examples of this and DARIUSS fits into this mold perfectly…
What sets DARIUSS and the films mentioned above apart from the rest of the “let’s just be as gross as possible and let’s see what can offend the most people” films is the unique look at not just the victims and gore but the motivations of the protagonists and antagonists in these films. One of the things that makes DARIUSS stand out is how the grieving (or lack thereof) of the main characters is shown in a way that really illuminates how broken an individual can become and how hope can seem impossible. It also shows how sometimes evil is just evil and there will be parts of the human condition that we will never understand and probably never should…
The Dismemberment
From a technical aspect, DARIUSS uses many of the techniques we see in many films (not just those of the horror/shock genres) but in ways that will keep the viewer disjointed but in breathless anticipation of what is to come next. Strictly from a visual standpoint, moving from black and white, color, distorted tracking and flashing, crystal clear clarity and shadows makes the viewer see things in an almost fever dream way. The director does a fantastic job of switching visual styles once you start to get “comfortable” in a certain style and when that is combined with near zero dialogue, you almost question if you are watching a film or experiencing a drug trip. Washed out colors, lens and light flares, uses of shadows and elements of “shot-on video” all combine to give you visuals nightmares and an almost epileptic and claustrophobic smothering effect…
Sound should not be discounted in this film in the slightest. Granted, the lack of dialogue could be jarring and frustrating for those that are hoping for exposition that would make the film more linear or make it make more sense, but what sound there is hints at the exquisite pain and suffering that oozes from the television screen. Sometimes sound design is often overlooked in films like this, but the director finds ways to make the use of sound just as horrifying if not more so than the visual aspects. The mere sounds of some of the sexual elements as well as the sounds of the carnage being enacted on the family in the film are sure to make some viewers more uncomfortable than the actual depictions of violence…
The FX work stands out as a high point. While there are moments of extreme gore and brutality in the film, the director does an excellent job of knowing when to show it and not just shower the audience in an unnecessary mess just to make a statement. What makes the film work is the fact that it incorporates ALL of the senses in the human body to elicit a response. There is something to set off every sense in the human body and the director leans into each one with a style that few others have been able to get across on the screen. It is hard to pick what many would call the “money-shot” of the gore sequences as they all have a lasting and grim impact on the viewer. While not throwing an over-abundance of gore at us, what is shown is certainly sickening and hits the desired effect one would want with a release like this while maintaining its place in extreme cinema…
The acting in the film lends to the overall feel of the film as well. As noted above, while there is next to zero dialogue during the movie, the actors and actresses do a FANTASTIC job showing how they are just going through the motions of a life and how they have and are continuing to slowly mentally decay by NOT seeking any kind of professional help for the grief and pain. In fact, the film shows the horrifying reality of what can happen when a sick mind and soul decides to self-medicate in a way that it thinks is an improvement while in fact proving that it is doing more harm. The passive ways in which the family move through life (incest, sexual deviation, abuse, and simply just not caring) is horrific through this lens. Both the actors and the writer deserve much credit for showing the bleakness of the situation and making the watcher uncomfortable…
As for the killer, the film does a great job of displaying someone is unhinged, depraved and quite possibly the definition of a chaotic evil that may exist in the depths of humankind and the world. When we look at case studies of real life serial killers such as Dahmer, Gacy, Bundy and the like, we see actions that they take that just absolutely makes the human mind wonder how they have been able to function in what we call everyday society. How someone can commit sexual perversions, bodily dismemberment, acts upon a child and more, yet still function and walk around “normal” people all day is scary and will give one pause when meeting unknown individuals. Because DARIUSS does not go into the explicit details of the life of the family and the killer, it makes the film that much more haunting that we have that element of the unknown and that we will never really know the true motivations of either. Skin crawling and hair-raising to say the least…
The Verdict
As with the films and directors I mentioned earlier in this review, there is a way to draw in and haunt your audience in ways to make you feel something for their projects, and Director Guerrilla Metropolitana has delivered that in spades. Please keep in mind as you watch this film that even he does not consider DARIUSS to be a typical horror/gore film that we see hit the market these days and I am inclined to agree with him. While many of the elements we see today in horror films are present in this release, I feel he with his unique use of camera work, framing, sound and an absolute shocking assault of the senses that he has crafted something that many extreme filmmakers today could learn from and expand what it means to make such a transgressive and explicit film.
Go into this film knowing that you will be shocked, offended, mystified, sickened and actually wanting more, to know what the actual motivations of the killer are and what were the actual events that led to everything we see in this nightmarish sliver of life. As I have said before, boundary pushing cinema is not safe, nor should it ever be. Guerrilla Metropolitana is a director I feel we need to be watching closer as he is bringing something to the table that so few other directors (in any genre) are these days: passion, vision and a willingness to throw light on the dark recesses of the human condition and what limits there are to that darkness. A dangerous and thought provoking film to say the least!
(As this was an online screener, there will be only one score at this time. I look forward to picking up a physical copy of this soon from SRS Cinema and seeing what extras may be included!)