Devičanska Svirka (1973)

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This film is about as obscure and unheard-of as they come.

As with Štićenik, I find myself quite enamored with certain aspects of Devičanska Svirka, the final work from Serbian director Djordje Kadijević included in the All the Haunts Be Ours box set, but still a little frustrated and unsure of how to rate it overall. On the one hand, it's unsettling and coherent enough to create tension. On the other hand, I'm not quite sure that I completely understood it, and the fact that it's so slow is as ever a point of contention.

As opposed to Štićenik, which takes place inside a mental institution located in the rural countryside, this film takes place in a gothic castle located in the rural countryside, and it immediately brings to mind things like Bram Stoker Dracula and Nikolai Gogol's Viy (particularly Mario Bava's loose adaptation Black Sunday.) while managing to eek out a place for itself: it's absolutely cavernous, with each sound and line of speech rendered through a variety of hypnotic delays, reverbs, and modulations, all accompanied by visuals that feel like the perfect adaptation of gothic imagery, ornate, erotic, and gloomy. It's just that much of the moment-to-moment is so slow as to be downright boring, and the denouement is decidedly arcane.

It's a film driven by performances, specifically the performance of actress Olivera Katarina, who is impossible to look away from throughout; her movements and expressions are so controlled, her delivery of dialogue so pitch-perfect and her appearance so alluring as to glue one to the screen, even when they're not entirely sure what on earth she's blathering about. She is able to carry the film for the most part - her and the oppressive atmosphere - but once it comes time for the story to deliver on what has been only hinted at prior, things sort of become tangled.

For a moment, the ending had me quite enthralled. I'll say one thing straightaway, and that's that the film can't be accused of being predictable. Just when I thought I knew how it was going to end, it went in a different direction, and I was happy, but then it twisted one more time, probably one time too many, before ending on an appropriately bleak note. The whole thing felt just a little nebulous, which can absolutely work for horror, and indeed makes for an atmospheric watch, but on the other hand, I can't help but wonder if I'll remember anything about this film a week from now. Those who are big fans of gothic horror and femme fatales may enjoy, but only if they are patient. 

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