Customer Reviews

Vinyan

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

VINYAN
A spirit consumed by rage and confusion after being horribly stripped from the clutches of mortality.
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INTRODUCTION
A dismal, overwhelming sense of hopelessness resonates through every frame of this riveting mind-bender. I was a little shocked to catch this at a private screening during Fangoria's Weekend of Horrors. This movie might put your average gorehound to sleep, as the blood and guts spewage is pretty non-existent. But VINYAN has an unbelievably black tone, such a disturbing descent into madness that will leave you feeling completely drained and lifeless.
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CAST & CREW
*Lead actor--Rufus Sewell (Dark City)
*Lead actress--Emmanuelle Beart (Mission:Impossible)
*Director--Fabrice du Welz (Calvaire)
*Cinematographer--Benoit Debie (Irreversible)
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STORY
Jeanne and Paul are an American couple working in Thailand. They are totally ravaged by the loss of their son Joshua, who was swept away in the Southeast Asia Tsunami. His body was never found, which left them a tiny glimmer of hope of his survival.
Six months later at a charity fundraiser, they see a video of orphans living in the jungles of Burma. They catch a glimpse of a boy that resembles their lost child, and Jeanne becomes obsessed with searching for him.
Their treacherous journey sends them on an ill-fated quest through the jungle, led by dangerous human trafficers.
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ACTING
The two stars do a phenomenal job, very controlled and convincing. Beart especially, she completely delves into this role and is totally fearless. The final scene is so unbelievably shocking, I still can't fathom her putting herself through it. The MPAA no doubt would disapprove. A-
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CINEMATOGRAPHY
Some very spooky shots, very stylistic and engrossing. Some resemble the shots from IRREVERSIBLE, in the Rectum club. Along with the sounds, the shots set a very tense atmosphere. Plus there are hallucinations and drunken dreams that capture the desperation quite well. There are shots underwater, shots with a hand-held camera that were totally impressive. A+
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DIRECTION
Du Welz did an amazing job with his first English-dialogue film. This isn't a story that will have a broad appeal, but he poured his heart into it. He does well capturing the emotional upheaval of the characters. He doesn't fall into the temptation of adding cheap scares to appease the casual moviegoers. Some might have issues with the pacing. I was leery as the climax drew near, realizing that there was no satisfying way to end this story. Somehow, thankfully, he proved me wrong. A
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OVERALL GRADE
A
This ain't your Hollywood horror film. Just a remarkably artistic and creepy cinematic experience, destined for cult status.

Hope seemed to be lost for The Bellmers after their son was washed away during a tsunami in Indonesia. However, they soon discover a video of a young boy that resembles their son taken from a small village in Burma, and they set off using any means necessary to bring back their child. A blaring title sequence opens VINYAN with an air of pretension that is carried on throughout the rest of the picture. Frabrice du Welz' English-language premiere is light on character, but heavy on aesthetic and atmosphere. The eerie psychological-thriller follows a similar plot progression to Francis Ford Coppola's APOCALYPSE NOW, traveling deep into the misty jungles and deeper into the darkest recesses of the human mind. Welz' camera goes into all-wheel-drive as it tears through the jungle paths and splashes into the sea right alongside each of the characters in a rough but calculated shooting style. Although Emmanuelle Beart and Rufus Sewell provide strong performances, their portrayals of the distant Jeanne and reactionary Paul garner little support in their hunt for their missing son. VINYAN's spooky settings and frightening look at human trafficking make for a unique watch, but the thin plotting and vague ending will leave many viewers wanting more.

-Carl Manes
I Like Horror Movies

Let's get this out of the way now.......this is a weird movie. Disturbing. Genuinely creepy. Is that a good thing? Depends on what you're ready to watch, and what your tastes are. I personally love weird indie films, and actively search them out. So not much surprises me anymore.

This movie surprised me.

I can honestly say I have never seen a film quite like this one. And that's really the basis of my 4-star rating. I'm not praising the movie, just stating a fact. I can fully, FULLY understand the negative reviews for this movie here. You may very well hate this movie, and not just casually. You might think it's a piece of irredeemable depressing garbage. You might love it. Either way you will not soon forget it. And that alone makes it worth seeing.

It also doesn't hurt that it is undeniably well acted and directed. There are shots after shots in this movie that are beautiful by any definition, however dark or pointless. If this movie succeeds at all it is as an unbelievably unnerving mood piece. As for the acting, the fact that Rufus Sewell (Dark City, The Illusionist, Bless the Child) doesn't get many leading roles seems to have forced him to become good at playing characters nearing the ends of various disturbed spirals. I really was not familiar with the leading lady Ms Beart before this film. Both of them present a portrait of parental loss taken to the most desperate extreme possible, and they do it well. Yet another reason it is worth seeing.

I probably won't ever feel the need to take this trip again, which might make you question why I'm telling you to take the trip now. As has been said many times already, this is a weird one. I've seen a lot of weird stuff in my day, and still this ranks among one of the most surreal and unique. And yet, it's never quite outside the range of believability. Some of the jungle/Thailand settings are almost hellish, and yet you feel that they probably do exist somewhere. Somewhere you hope you never go.

The ending is............controversial, to say the least.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone I know, but if you have an open mind and don't always expect art to make you feel good inside, or have a nice tidy resolution, then I think there is a lot to appreciate here.

If you need your movies to make perfect sense & get wrapped up with a pretty little bow at the end...than don't watch Vinyan.

On the other hand, if you can enjoy ambiguity and mystery and believe that great films don't necessarily need to make sense as long as they FEEL right, then there is a lot to enjoy in this harrowing journey called Vinyan.

Brilliant cinematography, sound design & editing really immerses the viewer in the foreign land of southeast Asia. And the two leads are outstanding as their characters enter their own Heart of Darkness.

And Heart of Darkness if the best way to put it. The content may be quite different, but this film reminded me a lot of Apocalypse Now.

Like some of the best films, there's a lot going on just under the surface here...comments on parenthood, tribal natures, and the relationships between the 1st and 3rd worlds. What exactly the film has to say is elusive...your fingertips can just barely clutch its meaning before it slips from your grasp. And so it demands repeated viewings, discussion and argument.

This is what I think make a good film...if you do too, check out Vinyan.

Allow me to save several of you some time right off the bat by warning that if you're on the hunt for a legitimate horror movie-- look elsewhere immediately. Vinyan is a plodding and artistic drama about loss, regret, and... well, whatever you want to categorize the finale as(revenge maybe?), but it's NOT horror. It's well made, with some gloomy atmosphere and excellent cinematography, even a few(and by few I mean EXACTLY 3) creepy moments, but it's NOT horror. The story follows a pair of grieving parents on the hunt for the son they lost 6 months prior to a tsunami in Thailand. To do this they enlist the help of a criminal, who for 1.5 million, guarantee's he can find they're son. From this point forward they travel to various secluded jungle locations while continually being monetarily sucked dry. The bleak ending is shocking only to those that actually think travelling to remote foreign islands with criminals is a "great idea." It may seem at this point that my low rating for Vinyan is due to the disappointment of it being something other than I expected... but actually, even reviewed as a drama it left much to be desired(unless you're fellow reviewer Christopher Blackshere of course LOL!). Again, technically the movie is more than sound, with solid acting throughout-- just know what it is going in: NOT horror(I can't be the only one who felt it was marketed as one right?)!

When the end credits started rolling, I finally exhaled, turned off my TV, and sat quietly for a bit.
I can't say I especially liked or disliked Vinyan, it definitely slithered into my brain like an unpleasant dream and spooked me right down to my tippy-toes.
I would line it up alongside excellent, albiet disturbing films such as Jacob's Ladder, Spider, Breaking Dawn, the original wicker man and Naked Lunch. All of these films, Vinyan included, are insidiously well crafted pieces of cinema that pack a nasty punch; great performances, solid storylines, and cleverly orchestrated horror.
The story concerns a couple devastated by the loss of their son 6 months earlier, the wife moreso than the husband. They essentially head off on a wild goosechase to find the kind in Burma once the wife starts obessing over footage that leads her to believe the kid survived the tsunami that supposedly claimed his life.
As their search begins to go horribly, horribly wrong, both start to crack, and some bizarre things start to happen. It all culminates in a somewhat bizarre and vicious ending. Their journey is draining, terrible, frightening and overwhelmingly hopeless, but it's deftly executed; you can't look away from this hapless pair and their struggle.
This isn't your standard gory slasher or ghost story or quest for a missing kid type of story, it's a bleak, relentlessly suspenseful psychological piece packing a few supernatural suprises under its belt.
I won't say approach with caution, but expect to want a shower afterwards.

VERY HAUNTING FILM (*****CINEMATOGRAPHY) ABOUT A HUSBAND ACCOMPANYING HIS WIFES DESCENT INTO MADNESS TRYING TO FIND HER SON WHO SHE BELIEVES SURVIVED A TSUNAMI(?)VERY CREEPY JOURNEY INTO A PRIMAL JUNGLE AREA RULED BY ABANDONED(?) CHILDREN LIVING A 'LORD OF THE FLIES' SURVIVALIST EXISTENCE.NOT UPLIFTING, BUT FULL OF GREAT ACTING BY SEWEL AND BEART AND SUPPORTING CHARECTORS. NO CLUE AS TO HOW THEY CAME UP WITH SUCH A GRIM STORY LINE.

It's just creepy. If you like creepy, this is a good one. The acting is very good and the story is well written. It is a very dark story.

A white couple lose their young son in a tsunami in Thailand. 6 months later, the husband has accepted his child's death, but the mother can't handle the loss at all and keeps seeing her son in other children. When they watch a video of Burmese children, the mother is convinced that the blurry kid they see only from behind is their missing son. He must have been washed ashore in Burma! After all, he's wearing a red shirt just like their son did! The husband doesn't really believe it, but he doesn't want to disappoint the wife he loves deeply, and he still feels guilt because he couldn't hold on to the son during the tsunami, so he agrees to go to Burma with her. Since the country doesn't permit travellers, they pay a very large sum of money to criminals to take them there and find the child. This leads to a life-threatening horror trip into the Burmese jungle.

So far, so good. The plot is psychologically interesting, the actors are truly fine (especially Rufus Sewell as the husband), and up to a certain point, the story is convincing. But after a while, the director loses himself in weird scenes that don't make any sense, there are no explanations for the strange events in the second half of the film, and he basically steals from other movies when he moves into this section (think Apocalypse Now and the like). What could have been an interesting psychological drama turns into meaningless nonsense with a few shock / horror elements. The title (Vinyan means 'angry spirits', which are supposed to remain on earth after a violent death in many Asian beliefs) may explain the otherwise inexplicable hundreds of brutal children with painted faces that start showing up more and more as the film continues (maybe, I'm really not sure). But on the whole I see this film as a wasted opportunity to tell a good story with fine actors in an interesting landscape. I wouldn't recommend anyone to waste your money on this.

A desperate couple's search for their missing child takes them from the uglier streets of Thailand deep into the Burmese jungle.
Slow-grinding, gorgeous but intensely grim psychological tale sporting some of the best performances in a 2009 horror film.
Very unnerving for those who allow it to be, but it's leisurely pace will likley infuriate many viewers.