An engrossing thriller, it held my attention and I really enjoyed it. The gore was a bit much but once you get past that, learning the backstory and everything that led up to the event is incredibly interesting, albeit sad. This is also a visually brilliant movie. A well made thriller.

This was not at all the film I thought I was signing up for. Fortunately I really liked the film it turned out to be.

Judging by the synopsis here and the trailer it looked like:

"I have just discovered something horrible about my husband so I snap and kill him"

That's not what this film is at all. It is more:

"I have a complex history and a complex relationship which leads to murder"

Calling this film a comedy is also WAY off the mark. The very small, very brief bits of jet black comedy are completely drowned out by the uncomfortable darkness. Ultimately this film is a tragedy and you have to accept that going in.

This reminded me strongly of Marjane Satrapi's 'The Voices' with a hint of Cory Finley's 'Thoroughbreds' (Both excellent films BTW). From the very opening shot the mental state of the protagonist is in question and the way the film plays out from that point doesn't have too many surprises, but it's superb nonetheless. Sarah Roy in particular puts in sterling work.

Accept this as an uncomfortable tragedy rather than a black comedy and I think it's well worth watching.

Overall it's a pretty good film. The acting is superb. I feel like the writers did a good job of giving the audience little bits of back story to fill in motivation gaps as the story progresses. It didn't feel like there was any overarching message, hidden agenda, or bad plot being forced on the audience. It's simply just a mentally ill woman with attachment issues who kills people. The cinematography is very well done. This movie does contain a few negatives however. Some of the imagery that plays during the flashback scenes feels forced, out of place, and does not move the plot. For instance the spiders don't ever mean anything in the story. I get the writers were trying to convey a sense of unease, but the spider became the focal point of the scenes so much so that the viewer begins to feel like the spiders have meaning. And I felt like the character of Zebra Girl in Catherine's books wasn't explored enough. In the end it felt as if Zebra Girl was just a footnote to the story. I understand that Catherine is supposed to be Zebra Girl, but it didn't feel like that. It was as if she made Zebra Girl, then forgot about the character, and then at the end becomes Zebra Girl.

Overall, I would recommend this film to anyone who's interested in mild thrillers, that are mostly cerebral, but done in a tasteful manner.