Superstition starts in Italy where nineteen year old English teenager Julie McCullough (Sienna Guillory) is working for the Cenci's as an au pair looking after their young child Claudio, however one night tragedy strikes & a fire breaks out in the child's bedroom in which he dies. Julie is accused & charged with arson & murder, the public prosecutor Isabella Flores (Frances Barber) ask's her friend & defence lawyer Antonio Gabrieli (Mark Strong) to represent Julie which he agrees to. The police forensic experts have no idea how the fire started & the Italian press baying for blood dub Julie a witch, the evidence is against Julie as it seems is the whole of Italy. Things look bleak for Julie but then Antonio is contacted by a professor who may have a very unusual & very supernatural explanation for what happened...
This English, Dutch & Lexembourg co-production was directed by Kenneth Hope & if you stumble across Superstition without knowing anything about it you would be forgiven for thinking that it is a supernatural horror film which it isn't. The script by Kate Dennis & Paul Hoffman is much more of a courtroom drama than a straight horror film, in fact apart from one or two supernatural overtones I wouldn't call Superstition a horror film at all. The vast majority of the film is made up of the courtroom scenes, the personal angst surrounding Julie & the situation she finds herself in & her defence lawyer Antonio being drawn into her world. Superstition is very much a character driven piece, in fact Superstition lives or dies by it's character's since it's a very exposition heavy film with very little in the way of dramatic incident. Luckily the character's are actually excellently fleshed out to a degree where you care about them, the relationship's between people, people's motives, lies, trust & how the situation affects them is what Superstition is all about. The actual limited supernatural elements are a little hard to swallow & seem somewhat implausible in a rather forgettable twist ending. At 90 odd minutes in length if you have the patience to follow it then Superstition is a fairly engrossing & gripping drama, if your looking for supernatural horror & things that go bump in the night then forget it.
Director Strong does a nice job here & the film is very stylishly shot, the film is also quite cleverly edited with several flashbacks scenes which all tie together nicely. The film has a soft look about it with muted colours, wide open locations & lots of fades rather than quick sharp cuts between scenes. Again Superstition is not an out-and-out horror fest of blood & gore, far from it in fact & I don't think there's a single drop of blood in the entire thing or a single scene which is meant to be scary. There's a definite atmosphere of unease but it doesn't try to be scary at all. I am not an expert on Italian law but why was Julie freed after being convicted of arson? I know she was acquitted of murder but the fact remains that a baby died in the fire she was convicted of starting, wouldn't that be called manslaughter which is a crime in itself? Wouldn't the judge take that into account when sentencing? Also, despite being set in Italy not one person ever speaks in Italian...
Technically the film is well made with some nice stylish cinematography. The locations look nice enough although I am pretty sure it wasn't actually shot in Italy. There's some very good performances here from a good cast here including Charlotte Rampling, Alice Krige & the always watchable David Warner.
Superstition is more of a courtroom drama than a supernatural horror film & you really should know that before watching it, alas I think the marketing campaign bigs up the horror elements which are obviously easier to sell than a drama. Worth a watch if you have the patience, stick with it & don't expect a full on horror film. Not to be confused with the brilliant gory horror flick Superstition (1982) about a killer witch.
This English, Dutch & Lexembourg co-production was directed by Kenneth Hope & if you stumble across Superstition without knowing anything about it you would be forgiven for thinking that it is a supernatural horror film which it isn't. The script by Kate Dennis & Paul Hoffman is much more of a courtroom drama than a straight horror film, in fact apart from one or two supernatural overtones I wouldn't call Superstition a horror film at all. The vast majority of the film is made up of the courtroom scenes, the personal angst surrounding Julie & the situation she finds herself in & her defence lawyer Antonio being drawn into her world. Superstition is very much a character driven piece, in fact Superstition lives or dies by it's character's since it's a very exposition heavy film with very little in the way of dramatic incident. Luckily the character's are actually excellently fleshed out to a degree where you care about them, the relationship's between people, people's motives, lies, trust & how the situation affects them is what Superstition is all about. The actual limited supernatural elements are a little hard to swallow & seem somewhat implausible in a rather forgettable twist ending. At 90 odd minutes in length if you have the patience to follow it then Superstition is a fairly engrossing & gripping drama, if your looking for supernatural horror & things that go bump in the night then forget it.
Director Strong does a nice job here & the film is very stylishly shot, the film is also quite cleverly edited with several flashbacks scenes which all tie together nicely. The film has a soft look about it with muted colours, wide open locations & lots of fades rather than quick sharp cuts between scenes. Again Superstition is not an out-and-out horror fest of blood & gore, far from it in fact & I don't think there's a single drop of blood in the entire thing or a single scene which is meant to be scary. There's a definite atmosphere of unease but it doesn't try to be scary at all. I am not an expert on Italian law but why was Julie freed after being convicted of arson? I know she was acquitted of murder but the fact remains that a baby died in the fire she was convicted of starting, wouldn't that be called manslaughter which is a crime in itself? Wouldn't the judge take that into account when sentencing? Also, despite being set in Italy not one person ever speaks in Italian...
Technically the film is well made with some nice stylish cinematography. The locations look nice enough although I am pretty sure it wasn't actually shot in Italy. There's some very good performances here from a good cast here including Charlotte Rampling, Alice Krige & the always watchable David Warner.
Superstition is more of a courtroom drama than a supernatural horror film & you really should know that before watching it, alas I think the marketing campaign bigs up the horror elements which are obviously easier to sell than a drama. Worth a watch if you have the patience, stick with it & don't expect a full on horror film. Not to be confused with the brilliant gory horror flick Superstition (1982) about a killer witch.