Cleopatra Music and
Films, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment
Group, looks to Germany and writer/director Oliver Kienle for horror chills on
Nov. 13 with the domestic DVD debut of Four Hands.
This film works as an
arthouse entry, a stylish thriller and, of course, as a twisted horror tale. That’s a rare combination, especially for a
foreign language import that plays so well to several audiences … more, if you
throw in German-speaking patrons in search of something in their native tongue.
In an extended prologue
we get two images that will stick with us.
The first is subtle and only takes up residence in our consciousness
later in the film — it is a vision of a large house — a routine establishing
shot — this is quite out of time and seemingly from another era (a visage of a
“haunted house”), which is located next to a clunking and clanking and very
busy industrial factory of some sort.
The next, which is
central to what will follow, is of two young girls at play in the large
house. They tinker with the piano keys,
laugh and giggle … and then suddenly all hell breaks loose.
There is a home invasion,
screams from their mother as the girls take refuge behind the couch. The older sister, Jessica, protects the
younger Sophie and keeps her quiet as their mother is butchered.
After this prologue,
Kienle brings us forward some 20 years and we learn that the crime, which also
included the murder of their father, was nothing more than a drug-induced
burglary attempt by a young man and his girlfriend, he panicked and made the decision
that no witnesses would be the best course of action in the heat of the moment.
These 20 years later we
also learn that both Jessica (Friederike Becht — Westwind, Labyrinth of Lies)
and Sophie (Frida-Lovisa Hamann — The White Snake) are still living in
the same house and that the factory continues on with its clunking and clanking. And, the young women also learn that the
killers are being released from prison.
There is an eeriness to
all of it; unsettling … and deliberately so.
The house, the news of the prisoners being released and the two “girls”
stuck in time and place. Jessica is
living a troubled existence and the news of the killers returning to finish the
job (in her mind) really sets her on edge.
Sophie, however, wants to enjoy the world and has become something of a pianist
with potential … she doesn’t share her sister’s thoughts of looming danger.
Kienle keeps us — the
audience — on edge with the tension between the sisters. They argue over the best course of action and
battle over this and that. And then
suddenly tragedy strikes and Jessica is killed in an auto accident, but Sophie
survives.
As Sophie recovers from
her injuries she becomes morose, she becomes a Jekyll and a Hyde … she becomes
both Jessica and Sophie!
In traditional horror
films, such as when Lon Chaney transforms into the Wolf Man, or Spencer Tracy
transforms from Jekyll to Hyde, you see a series of overlaid film images (later
these transformations are accomplished with CGI), however Kienle takes a
different approach and literally switches actresses in mid-shot. It is a jarring effect!
Sophie blacks out during
each Jessica episode and has to piece things together in the aftermath. It is a nightmare within a nightmare and
director Oliver Kienle has taken us down this edge-of-your-seat path from
literally the opening shots in the film.
It is only now that you realize everything in Four Hands has its place
and purpose and there is no turning back.
Four Hands is presented in German with English subtitles.
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