Attachment

Horror-themed streaming service Shudder has its own section of queer horror films, several of which are Shudder originals or exclusives. And unlike some LGBTQ* sections on streaming services, Shudder is also enough of an ally to have a decent sized library of lesbian-themed films. That’s where I watched Attachment. It’s nice that Shudder has enough lesbian horror films that I can identify trends among them. That being said, I’m pretty bummed that the main trend in Shudder’s lesbian films is that they’re the kind of film where if you’re nice, you say it’s a slow burn. And if you’re not nice, you say it’s a film where nothing fucking happened. Attachment has more positive elements than several other queer Shudder originals. But it’s still pretty fair to say that not much happens in this movie, at least horror-wise.

In Denmark, Maja meets Leah. The two quickly develop a relationship. But one day, Leah suffers a bout of sleepwalking followed by a seizure that leads to an injury. Leah decides she has to return home to England to recuperate at home with her mother. Maja offers to come along. Leah warns Maja that her mother’s weird, but Maja isn’t put off. They travel to England and Maja personally confirms that Leah’s mom, Chana is indeed, weird. Chana is very religious in a way that lends itself less to prayer and more towards superstition and fear of the supernatural. Moreover, she exercises a strange level of control over Leah and often does her best to make Maja feel unwelcome. Maja begins to grow concerned that Chana might hurt Leah, and decides the best thing to do is to leave.

Only after the above plot summary does anything scary happens. And that’s pretty late into this 105 minute film. When the scares come, some of them are effective. There’s a real eerie, unnerving vibe instead of major effects or makeup reliance. But as quickly as the movie reaches a scary place, it resolves almost as quickly. With little build-up to the horror elements, the few minutes we get don’t feel sufficient. The horror elements come from a cool idea that’s a riff on a classic theme with its own unique spin. All positives. But there’s just comparatively so little here that it’s hard to even qualify this as a horror film. It’s mostly some sort of tense dark comedy about your girlfriend’s weird mom. And then right at the end, there’s like, a horror short film that does connect plot-wise but feels somewhat out of place thematically.

I would’ve preferred more building of tension and more foreshadowing of the horror that’s to come in Attachment. We don’t get much of that, but at least the whole movie is well-shot and well-lit. There’s something wonky about Attachment’s pacing, but it’s not like it really drags. It is fairly engaging as a story about a woman out of place at her girlfriend’s home. Another thing that really helps is the three lead characters are strong. The actresses all give good performances and the two playing Leah and Maja have good chemistry. The lesbian romance definitely has a lot more personality and likeability than I often find in sapphic horror. And Sofie Gråbøl often steals the scene as the unsettling and occasionally threatening Chana. These first two acts make for a decent movie on their own, just not a horror movie.

A main consideration I use when rating horror movies is the simple question of, is it scary? Attachment isn’t scary. So, that’s a pretty big failure. But I also can’t quite ignore the other positives the film has. There’s good performances, good camerawork, some well-timed moments of comedy and overall, an ambition and passion clearly present in the final product. So, I can’t fully write the film off. But if you’re looking for scares, you’re not going to find them in Attachment.

Overall rating: 5.2/10

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