Amer (2009)

76% of critics liked it
(25 reviews)
53% of users liked it
(851 ratings)

Searing memories and carnal desires rule the mind of Ana (Marie Bos), a young woman in thrall to her own fantasies in this French psychological thriller that blends eroticism with European slasher movie traditions and a haunted house on the Côte d'Azur. The film's enigmatic, intimate cinematography… More Searing memories and carnal desires rule the mind of Ana (Marie Bos), a young woman in thrall to her own fantasies in this French psychological thriller that blends eroticism with European slasher movie traditions and a haunted house on the Côte d'Azur. The film's enigmatic, intimate cinematography builds an atmosphere thick with the pall of evil, as Ana's visions and obsessions draw her toward deeper eroticism -- and deeper danger. -- (C) Olive Films

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Oct 29, 2010 Limited
On DVD: Jul 18, 2011
Studio: Olive Films

Critic Reviews

Stephen Holden, New York Times
A voluptuous wallow in recycled psychosexual kitsch.
Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
A bravura exploration of fear and desire, a visual tour de force composed of cropped images, strobe cuts, bizarre psychological twists and a steamy sensuality.
Ella Taylor, Village Voice
The pleasures of this gorgeous, clever, and visceral film are almost exclusively aesthetic. Those unmoved or alienated by the porn of pain may be left flopping as nervelessly as one of the movie's severed limbs.
Philip French, Guardian [UK]
This is art-house horror, a pure cinema for connoisseurs, a return to late-19th-century decadence.
Allan Hunter, Daily Express
It's beautifully made but feels more like an art installation than something you might savour in a cinema.
Matthew Turner, ViewLondon
By turns disturbing, suspenseful, puzzling and terrifying, Amer is a stylishly directed, visually stunning pastiche of Italian genre cinema with a superb soundtrack and terrific performances from the three leads.
Xan Brooks, Guardian [UK]
For all its gloss and panache and giddying crash zooms to the keyhole, Amer is finally little more than a prolonged tease of a movie; provocation without a purpose.
Nicola Woodham, Electric Sheep
Generally, Amer's film language is akin to a glossy car advert in the style of giallo. At other times, the filmic experimentation is uncompromising, any meaning dissolves and only enigmatic imprints are left.
Leo Robson, Financial Times
With its excitable score (assembled from old gialli), expressionist colour palette and invasive close-ups, it is heady, head-scratching fun.
Rob Daniel, Sky Movies
Fans lamenting the decline of Italian fear maestro Dario Argento will be relieved to find his legacy in such talented hands.
David Jenkins, Time Out
It's perhaps asking a bit much to read it as anything more than a claustrophobic portrait of sexual danger, but it still fulfils that highly specific brief with blood-splashed gusto.
Sam Toy, Empire Magazine
Not for everyone, but fans of Dario Argento will find plenty to like about this otherworldly study of sex and sensuality.
Kevin Harley, Total Film
Bruno Forzani and Hélène Cattet's baroque Belgian beauty pays homage to '70s Italian horror but brims with its own sexualised currents of threat and promise.
Jamie Dunn, The Skinny
Near wordless, the film is a banquet of baroque imagery and kaleidoscopic colour.
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Duplicates the style and hothouse psychosexual passions of its '70s predecessors with such self-consciousness that little unsettling emotion emerges.
Andy Klein, Brand X
[T]hey have re-created, in exaggerated form, the virtues and vices of '70s/'80s Italian giallos...
Brent Simon, Shared Darkness
A woozy, deeply eroticized and entirely cinematic fever-dream, an homage to Italian giallo re-imagined as a sort of avant-garde, French rave trance film.
Staci Layne Wilson, Horror.com
While Amer isn't for everyone, it's bound to be a sweet treat for those who swoon to style.
Chris Cabin, Filmcritic.com
a hallucinatory creeper
Stephanie Zacharek, Movieline
Unsettling, energizing and more than a little mystifying, Amer is the kind of movie that may leave you feeling indifferent or puzzled at the end. But damned if it doesn't return, days later, to visit -- kind of like a killer in black leather gloves.

Read all 20 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Lee ?

Prior to viewing this a lot of people would have heard this to be an homage to the Italian Giallo films of the 70s, and it is, but mostly in style only. Plot-wise it's very different to your conventional police detective on the trail of a killer type deal... in fact story is very… More
Prior to viewing this a lot of people would have heard this to be an homage to the Italian Giallo films of the 70s, and it is, but mostly in style only. Plot-wise it's very different to your conventional police detective on the trail of a killer type deal... in fact story is very minimal in this one, as is the dialogue and I was left bewildered as to what it was all about at the end of it all. Only one kill in the whole movie, but what a graphically vicious one it is though, definitely not for the squeamish. But there is undeniable quality in the style of it all - very pleasing on the eye. The suspense is masterfully built and there are some genuinely creepy and haunting moments to be had, especially during the first segment. I'll definitely need to give this one another watch to make sense of it all, I just didn't expect it to be so artsy.
Tsubaki S

This is not a giallo, is just a film school wanking exercise. Shoving the camera in the face of the actors all the time doesn't make a movie a "tour de force", more like a tour of headaches. More than annoying, Amer is just a bore to watch.
Eric H

Reading the above summary you'd be forgiven for confusing this with last years "Black Swan" or Polanski's "Repulsion". Despite the critical plaudits of the aforementioned, Amer is the strongest of the three. That's not to say it's without flaws,… More
Reading the above summary you'd be forgiven for confusing this with last years "Black Swan" or Polanski's "Repulsion". Despite the critical plaudits of the aforementioned, Amer is the strongest of the three. That's not to say it's without flaws, and Amer will struggle to win any fans from the general movie-going public. It's told almost entirely without dialogue, something which instantly scores brownie points with me. Having said that there's not much of a story to tell, think "Repulsion" if it was made in mid Seventies Italy. The movie is split into three distinct segments. The first has our protagonist as a young girl attempt to steal a locket from a decrepit relative who more than resembles the witch from "Suspiria". It heavily references Mario Bava's "Black Sabbath", all primary colours and dripping water. The middle sequence is the standout, a beautifully shot walk through a mediterranean village frought with perceived sexual threat. Sadly the film collapses in it's third act, a blatant "Repulsion" rip-off that drags on too long and leads to a heavy handed metaphorical coda. If you like purely visual cinema I'd say give this a look purely on the strength of it's first half but prepare to lose interest as it panders out. I'll be curious to see the film-makers next effort, hopefully it'll have a bit more meat on it's stylish bones.
Christopher B

A visual feast with a lot going on under the surface. Repression, sexuality and guilt are some of the themes running through what I thought was simply going to be an ode to the Giallos (which I'm not a huge fan of). Will be a very easy film to rewatch, probably gaining some new… More
A visual feast with a lot going on under the surface. Repression, sexuality and guilt are some of the themes running through what I thought was simply going to be an ode to the Giallos (which I'm not a huge fan of). Will be a very easy film to rewatch, probably gaining some new insight from each viewing.
John M

"Amer" is a psychological thriller about Ana's memories who... that... well... the movie has not plot and it is scenes after scenes with not explanation at all and I can't remember if I have ever seen another movie in which there are almost not dialogues (aside… More
"Amer" is a psychological thriller about Ana's memories who... that... well... the movie has not plot and it is scenes after scenes with not explanation at all and I can't remember if I have ever seen another movie in which there are almost not dialogues (aside silent movies), however, the movie manages to keep you interested in it. Visually colorful and stylish, "Amer", is a homage to the Italian Giallo genre from the 60's and 70's. Even the soundtracks are from movies famous giallo movies. The movie works so well as homage that I felt it like a film of that era. Positive aspects aside, as a fan of Giallo movies I felt disappointed because I was misleaded by the trailer and I was expecting gore, death, suspense, as ussual in the giallo genre but you will have to wait to the last 20 or 15 minutes to get to see a bit of them. Technically succeed but in substance of the genre fails, although the movie entertains it is not a movie a would recommend to everybody.