Academy Award nominated actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste stars in the weirdly entrancing new horror film In Fabric. The movie tells of two separate people’s encounters with a possessed red dress that brings difficulty and bloodshed to the lives of those who take ownership of it. It is an odd and intriguing film that has two tonally different halves that both managed to engage this viewer.

Jean-Baptiste stars in the film’s first half as a lonely single mom and bank teller, Sheila, who acquires the dress from a very freaky department store. She wears the dress on a blind date and soon comes to regret her purchase. The dress leaves a rash on her skin, destroys her washer and does plenty more violent things in the short time she has it.

Jean-Baptiste, an immensely talented actor, grounds this half of the film and makes the ridiculousness of the movie’s premise palatable. Her character’s longings and struggles in life are palpable, and you care for her character well before her life is torn asunder by the insidious red garment.

While I preferred the first half, I also enjoyed the more comedic second portion. In it, Leo Bill plays Reg, a washing machine repairman who is forced to wear the dress at his own bachelor party. Having been picked up by a partygoer at a secondhand shop, the dress soon enough starts ruining Reg’s life, including his relationship with his fiancée Babs. While less serious than the film’s earlier tale, one still wants the best for Reg, but by now, you know what fate awaits anyone unlucky enough to come into contact with the scarlet frock.

Fans of writer-director Peter Strickland’s earlier work, like Berberian Sound Studio or The Duke of Burgundy, need not fret. He is still on his artsy, Euro-horror A-game here. I’d put the department store of doom, where the dress first appears, and its kooky clerks up there with the best of his on-screen creations.

In Fabric is not a traditional horror film, by any means, but its mix of violence, drama, and comedy is quite striking and enjoyable. For the adventurous horror movie fan, there is a great deal to appreciate within the confines of its running time. Do seek it out.

Recommended if you liked: Suspiria (2018) Berberian Sound Studio, The Duke of Burgundy

It is currently in theaters and on demand December 10.

FINAL GRADE: A-

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