Effigy

2024

Horror

6
IMDb Rating 2.8/10 10 265 265

Plot summary

Isolated on the fringes of a soulless metropolis, Catherine survives on scraps of translation work. But a mysterious client offers a lucrative job, and an opportunity for Catherine to indulge in her malformed and incompatible desires. As the film unravels, the lines between reality and delusion blur, seamlessly mirroring Catherine's struggle to make sense of the tainted fragments of her client's mysterious scroll.

Director

John Cairns Photo
John Cairns

Top cast

Shinsuke Kato Photo
Shinsuke Kato as Doggy
Sergey Kuvaev Photo
Sergey Kuvaev as Nicholas
Camilla Ståhl Photo
Camilla Ståhl as Catherine
Mihoko Watanabe Photo
Mihoko Watanabe as Mother
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
718.81 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
24 fps
1 hr 18 min
Seeds 3
1.3 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
us  
24 fps
1 hr 18 min
Seeds 14

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by gregorykw 9 / 10

Atmospheric, Gritty, and Poetic. Look at the Written Reviews, not the Star Rating

I'm not sure who is adding all the negative star ratings and if they have actually seen the movie and genuinely didn't like it or are just trolling, but as with most of the other people who actually wrote reviews, I would definitely recommend watching this film if you like movies that are dark, highly-atmospheric, and artistic slow-burn suspense (almost a sort of mythic-Japanese-metropolitan-noir type feeling. Subtle, dark-fantasy cyberpunk, maybe).I don't usually watch horror movies, but I found this movie highly enjoyable because it presented an atmospheric, artistic and motif-heavy exploration of the horrors of living in a soulless metropolis full of lost people, without resorting to jump scares and chases scenes. If you want "I'm scared to turn out the lights after watching this" type J-Horror, this ain't it. If you want a thoughtful meditation on the kind of casual cruelty and isolation that can characterize modern life in a mega-city, seen through a rich and immersive horror-type-lens that elevates the mundane and mixes it with the mythic, this is the movie for you.Effigy is, on the surface, a simple story about a woman's gradual mental/moral spiraling. Much of the runtime is spent on atmospheric thematic development rather than detailed or dramatic plot points. The slow-burn is kept from being boring, however, both through the immersive visuals and sound, and, even more so, through the layering of symbols, analogies, motifs, and myths on top of the base storyline.Imagine a dark version of "Drive My Car," but instead of 3-hours of pretentious monotone reading of Chekhov lines that are hard to understand out of context, it layers in an easily accessible Hans Christian Andersen-type haunting fairy-tale on top of the main story. This, combined with repeating visual motifs, ties things together and creates a feeling of inevitability-the protagonists mental and moral decay feels tied to the physical and social decay of the world around her. I would compare it a little bit to AMC's "The Killing," or "Bird Box Barcelona," - a focus on the decaying fringes of a cyberpunk-metropolis, mixed with a heavy dose of poetic and mythic imagery and symbols.This is a movie about, to some extent, the struggle for meaning amidst an uncaring world, and this struggle operates on multiple levels, from mythic fairy tale to gritty undercity drama. The greatest impact of this movie is in its seamless mixing of all of these levels together.For a relatively low-budget independent film, the quality is extremely high, the writing and acting is enjoyable and believable, the visuals are somehow both immersive and claustrophobic, the sound and music rival any big-budget Hollywood movie in terms of quality, and the concept is unique, creative, and memorable.There is not a huge amount of plot, the pace is a little slow at times, and the budget constraints shows in some of the CGI sequences, but the expertly crafted use of motifs and layered stories, combined with the immersive atmosphere make it an enjoyable and memorable film if you are up for the sort of immersive suspense that is horrific, but not shocking, artistic, but not pretentious, and low-budget, but not low-quality.
Reviewed by wolfheart_78 1 / 10

A Do not watch

Do not watch this movie!!

Do not watch this movie!!

I didn't intend to write anything about this movie But I changed my mind after seeing the reviews that praised this so called movie.

So I'm sparing you the bore and the disappointment of watching this none sense.

The movie does not have a plot or a meaning You keep watching waiting for something to came out but in veins.

Do not waste your time on this one You will not enjoy or understand anything Actually I think the good reviews were about a totally different movie and not this one.

Lot of gaps and non sense Bad acting And all i kept thinking about while watching was: So what's next nothing is happening I fast forwarded till the end and still nothing happened.

I gave it 1/10 cause there is no Zero rating.

Reviewed by Dylan_in_the_Movies 7 / 10

Bergmanesque Psychological Thriller

Creepy imagery fills the screen, as a story within a story unfolds. Set in Japan, with Swedish characters, the plot is mesmerizing, disorienting, dark and fascinating. Something about translating a children's story, but that's just the starting point for an image-driven trip down the rabbit hole. This is an ambiguous character study open to interpretation. I enjoyed the strangeness of it all. It's unconventional and unique, choosing not to explain every action. This is a movie that does not follow a formula; it clearly has its own rhythm and style. The unsettling sound design adds to the mood, while the cool animation supports the sub-textual narrative. If you like independent thrillers, and are open to connecting the dots, check out EFFIGY.

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