Canada
2019 83 mins OV English
Somewhere in Costa Rica, by the sea, in the huge, ominous jungle, lies a mutilated body. Abandoned emergency vehicles are parked nearby. Jade (Morgan Kohan) is lost and confused. Flashback: the young woman is on holiday in a luxurious mansion with rich Americans who just want to party with sexy girls and plenty of blow. Isolated from the group, Jade is haunted by psychotic visions of her late father (Roc Lafortune). Meanwhile, there is a series of mysterious attacks by figures covered with vegetation, dripping with sap, and armed with machetes, who are both terrifying and curiously beautiful. Are they ghosts? Demons? Or simply a manifestation of nature arising to silence the obnoxious folks who are disturbing it?
Written and directed by Alexandre Carrière (the short film JACOB’S WRATH, which screened at Fantasia 2016), JADE’S ASYLUM is a psychological horror film featuring impressive makeup effects for the monsters. Also remarkable is the unsettling formal approach favoured by the Quebec filmmaker. With a disjointed chronology and impressionistic editing that recall the recent work of Jean-Marc Vallée (notably on the HBO series SHARP OBJECTS), the film delves into the unstable psyche of its protagonist, in a maze of memories and hallucinations. Alternately atmospheric and intense, the story is divided into chapters à la Tarantino, while also including some frenzied EVIL DEAD-style shots. It will keep you rooted to your seat until the very end. - Kevin Laforest
