Night 2: ‘Les Diaboliques’ (1955)
This is part of the ‘31 Nights of Horror Classics’ series, which I’ll be doing for Halloween 2017. Every night of this month, I’ll be watching a horror film made before the 90s and I’ll be posting a short review here.
If psychological or atmospheric horror isn’t your thing, this film might not work for you. In fact, Les Diaboliques leans more heavily on suspense than horror as we know it. And, except for a few creepy images, nothing strictly dreadful happens.
The story is quite simple: the Headmistress of a boarding school (Véra Clouzot) teams up with her husband’s lover (Simone Signoret) to kill him. But although they have everything planned out, things go wrong when the body goes missing and bizarre events start to occur. Is the husband back from the dead, or did someone catch them and is using it against them?
Unlike gory or supernatural films, the true horror of Les Diaboliques is seeing the main character slowly lose her mind as she tries to answer this question. The line between what is real and what is in her head starts to blur quite fast after the murder, consuming her. Soon, the sweet, calm character that we meet at the start of the movie starts to slip away, and as the cracks in the armor start to appear, you can’t help but watch it entranced.
Both Véra Clouzot and Simone Signoret are magnetic, and they deliver strong performances as the two murderous women. Seeing them interact is easily the most satisfying part of the entire film. Every scene is soaked with delicious tension that will have your eyes glued to the screen.
The claustrophobic nature of the boarding school, where most of the action takes place, is also wonderfully used. Towards the end of the movie, the filmmakers use light, shadows and framing to create a disturbing atmosphere that successfully amps up the suspense. It’s beautiful to watch, yet also very disturbing!
The downside of the movie is that it can be very predictable for a modern audience. Although sometimes the narrative did make me question if there was something supernatural going on, or if someone was behind everything; once certain events take place it’s easy to see how the story will unfold. And it was just like I had guessed halfway through the movie.
What’s interesting is that once the revelation is made, you can look back and take notice of the seeds that were being planted from the start. The hints are delightfully subtle, and even if a modern viewer can easily pick up on them, it’s still very entertaining to assemble the pieces of the puzzle.
On an interesting note, the film contains one of the first “Don’t spoil it for your friends!”-messages I’ve ever seen! Thus, although the novelty of the plot might be lost on us, it’s fun to imagine how audiences reacted back when it premiered.
In conclusion, Les Diaboliques is a very enjoyable film to watch. Just don’t let the title trick you into expecting monsters, demons or supernatural beings to pop up! In fact, the truly diabolical nature in the film comes from actual human beings whom are capable of doing horrific things to get what they want.
And it might surprise you just how far they’re willing to go!
Grade: 7/10 — Suspenseful. Beautifully crafted.
Scare Factor: a couple of brief unsettling images.
Gore/Violence: fleeting outbursts of violence towards women and children.
Nudity/Sexual Situations: none.
Previous Night: ‘Re-Animator’ (85)
Next up: ‘Nosferatu’ (79)
