Now on Shudder: A Wounded Fawn
Every horror fan knows that Shudder is the best spot for horror movies on the whole internet. Each month they release tons of classic movies and hidden gems plus a slew of exclusives and original films. Way back in the VHS days, choices were limited but in the age of the internet there are so many movies to watch it can get overwhelming leaving us with just one question before spending two hours on a film and that is:
“Is it any good?”
The most recent Shudder Exclusive is A Wounded Fawn, here’s what the synopsis tells us:
A local museum curator who is dipping her toe back into the dating pool is targeted by a charming serial killer. When a fateful romantic getaway between the two becomes a tense game of cat and mouse, both must confront the madness within him.
So….is it any good? YES!
Being honest, I was hesitant at first. The synopsis on the Shudder app includes that the film was “shot in beautiful 16mm” and was the latest from visionary “Travis Stevens”. Stuff like this is a huge red flag for me, I watch tons of movies and I can never tell the difference between digital and analog or 16mm or 9mm or whatever. It’s all hogwash to me, pretentious stuff for cinema elitists to talk about. Red flag number two is mentioning the director, if it’s not a well known name this is typically reserved for artsy directors. I was ready for snooze fest but I checked the director's filmography and saw he directed Girl on the Third Floor which if you haven’t seen is a movie about a gooey house trying to have sex with a Pro Wrestler. I also remembered one of my favorite directors, Joe Begos, loves shooting on film so I gave the movie a chance and am I ever glad I did.
The film starts out with an auction of an ancient Greek sculpture, The Wrath of Erinyes, which is about female rage and is basically the plot of the whole movie. We're introduced to the main character, Bruce, who kills the woman who wins the auction with a weird bear claw knife thing and we see that he is commanded by a giant owl to do so. We then meet Meredith, mentioned in the synopsis as “the museum curator dipping her toe back into the dating pool”. It’s interesting because typically in these movies the main character is the woman trying to survive the serial killer but A Wounded Fawn is a bit different as Bruce is commanded by the giant owl to kill Meredith pretty early in the movie. A typical movie would see Meredith narrowly escape her destiny and spend the rest of the movie in a “tense game of cat and mouse” mentioned in the synopsis but no, she gets murdered, at least I think she does.
However, as Bruce starts to dispose of the body Meredith comes back to life and bashes Bruce’s head in with the ancient Greek statue. He wakes and finds that Meredith is gone but in her place is a terrible headache and increasingly real hallucinations. This is the type of stuff that would make Dario Argento smile as Bruce is chased through the woods by a woman in a tree costume and one that looks like medusa and one with a porcelain mask and giant lips. Everything goes bat shit crazy as the three creepy figments of Bruce’s imagination have a sit down talk with him about why he is a serial killer, how many women he has killed, and the origin of the owl. He pulls a baby chicken out of his head, the porcelain mask woman summons snakes and Bruce makes a toga out of bed sheets before the movie ends in a shocking climax and an extremely disturbing credit sequence
Being honest, I don’t know what the hell was going on in this movie or what message the director was trying to get across but I absolutely loved it. It felt like one of those batshit crazy ‘70s Italian horror films that made no sense but looked cool, the 16mm grainy film really helped with this aesthetic. It’s brutal, violent, trippy, weird and best of all, now streaming on Shudder. Check it out now.
