Musically-minded villain doesn’t really make this a feminist film, or bring much coherence to the mayhem she orchestrates
Another entry to chalk up in the neo-giallo wave currently being led by Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, this also flips the misogynistic precepts of the genre – in this case making the murderous point of view very much female. Kamia Benge plays
music student Alexis, a young deaf girl who is far from being traumatised by an incident of terrible violence in her home, and instead finds that a meat tenderiser’s squelchy impact causes her to see a constellation of hallucinogenic lights – along presumably all the feels.
Years later, her hearing returned, Alexis (now played by Jasmin Savoy Brown) and fellow student Marie (Lili Simmons) are recording in an S&M dungeon when the flesh-strikes start tickling her dormant synaesthesia – and she tries pushing the gimp beyond his limits. Out walking one night on a break from her music, Alexis shoves a street harasser in front of an SUV – causing a full-on multi-coloured synaptic big bang. Sensing the possibilities, this uncompromising avant-gardist decides to take her musically motivated pain infliction much further, giving new meaning to the term sick beats.