A lonely divorcee visits a bewitching London department store to find a dress to transform her life. She soon finds a perfect, artery-red gown that unleashes a malevolent, unstoppable curse.
I was unsure of what I was expecting from this film, but I certainly didn't expect what I got. I am not familiar with the prior works of Director Peter Strickland (the likes of The Field Guide To Evil, The Duke of Burgundy, and Berberian Sound Studio), but if this feature is anything to judge his works by, Strickland is a creator of highly sensual and atmospheric works.
In Fabric is a simple film that looks at the behaviours and fascinations of people related to the concept of shopping and consumerism, all through the guise of an edgy horror film about a killer red dress. The dress, described as artery red in colour, is one of the few elements of this double-act film that is present throughout, and yet it isn't so much the focus of the film. The focus is more so on the human characters that cross paths with this red dress.
The first act centers around Sheila (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste) a recently divorced bankteller, looking for love, chastised at work, and a side character in her son's life. The second act however focuses on a washing machine repairman, Reg Speaks (played by Leo Bill), who is recently engaged and is also in an unconventional work situation. Both characters (along with their support characters) view and interact with the dress in a number of different ways, exploring the relationship between material possessions and consumerism, through hypersexualized scenarios and perverse fetishizations.
In a visual sense, In Fabric is stunning. Strong choices in cinematography by Ari Wegner and colour grading form a glamorously vibrant and lush visual experience. The grain and colour palette of rich full colours, gives off a retro 70's and 80's vibe that falls in line with the style of deceptively artistic films such as Dario Argento's 1977 horror, Suspiria or Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. The acting styles feel almost theatrical in nature, with a higher attention paid to the aural sensations.
Silence is used effectively in conjunction with close up camera shots of unusual behaviour to make the audience feel uncertain and uncomfortable, at all times, jumping from one uncanny situation to another. The musical compositions by Cavern of Anti-Matter further heightening the experience adding a very supernatural atmosphere to the feature.
What lets the film down, is its structure. The first act has the most intrigue and build up, and yet the transitions between scenes feel so off-kilter that it feels like there is information missing; as if the audience is viewing a highlight reel of perplexing and unnatural events. There is no sense of time passing, and this makes the jumpy collection of scenes almost feel non-linear as characters are randomly introduced and disregarded. The second act is much better structured, by comparison, but struggles with the need to introduce a new set of characters half way through the film, and ends up repeating a lot of the same behaviours from the first act.
An anthology of scenes that are inspired by the shopping process, In Fabric looks at the unnatural senses of arousal that the behaviours can awaken; from sales and holiday specials, to fitting rooms, mannequins, and the repeated incantations of customer service scripts, strickland find a way to turn every aspect into something sexual and passionate, finding a way to add further fluids to the killer red dress.
If you are a fan of a strong storyline, this is not the A24 film for you. Far from the likes of Midsommar and The Lighthouse, In Fabric has no set destination. It is an unguided exploration of a world not too dissimilar from our own, interrupted by montages and newspaper clippings. It is weird, it is wacky, but above all else, it is unpredictable and striking in an aural sense. It is not my kind of film, that is for sure, as I prefer strong character development and narrative direction. But In Fabric puts forward something different, and that is something worth appreciating.