Black Circle

Christina Linberg, whose starring role in the rape-revenge roughie Thriller: A Cruel Picture made her a cult icon, gets top billing here in writer-director Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s Black Circle (2018).  And deservedly so.  Her performance as a gifted mentalist whose self-help vinyl LP purges listeners of their bad thoughts and feelings - only to create a deadly Ethereal Double – is the glue that binds this confusing amalgamation of psychic realms and altered states together. 

Celeste is floundering at life when her sister, Isa, presents her with a mysterious record she claims will lead to instant success.  After listening, the results are as amazing as promised; but the side effects are more unexpected.  Celeste has nightmarish visions of a fetal version of herself and when Isa shows up claiming she’s being followed, the pair decide to track down Lena Carlsson (Lindberg), the woman whose recording unleashed this psychic trauma in the first place.

 

It's an excellent set-up with elements of J-horror and Ken Russell iconography sprinkled throughout.  But as Bogliano draws us deeper into the story, he loses his way in a labyrinth of psycho-babble and exposition.  The film’s mentalist mythmaking – laying down the powers, rules and creatures inhabiting this spiritual universe – is fascinating stuff.  But there’s so darn much of it that we rarely get to see a physical manifestation of the threat our characters are facing.  Even Insidious threw in a red demon now and then to make astral projection a bit more dangerous.

 

Thank God for Lindberg, whose stoic instructions for each new hoop the characters must jump through comes across with real gravitas.  It’s great to see her sink into such a meaty role.  But she’s the only one in the film who even registers; the others have less backstory than a slasher victim.  Black Circle takes some pretty big swings and leans hard into a stellar music score, but ultimately just feels like a skipped record. 

 

Synapse Films’ Blu-ray includes a commentary track, featurette, interviews, trailer, the original 2017 short – Don’t Open Your Eyes – and, as a cool perk, the soundtrack on an included CD.  

 

 

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