Nocturne (2020)

Jealous sister, rivals and the desire to be the best in a tale that wasn't all that interesting. Typical raw ambition taking over and creating a monster. I would skip this.

Fmovies: What is it with these new horror movies that leave you guessing what the ending is supposed to mean? Am I just that thick that I'm the only one person who's left thinking, "What the hell was that?" I don't think I'm giving anything away here to call this a spoiler. The rest of the film was enjoyable, and the acting was well done. I'll leave it up to you to decide your own interpretation of the ending.

"Music is a blood sport." Dr. Cask (Ivan Shaw)

Having just viewed The Wolf of Snow Hollow, which combines the satiric with the traditional horror genre, seeing writer-director Zu Quirke's Nocturne made me realize that a horror film with no digitized scares or much blood to boot can be a most terrorizing rendition of that durable formula. The scare is in the mind, you see.

Juliet (Sydney Sweeney) and her more talented sister, Vi (Madison Iseman), compete at their high-class music school for the chance to play in the school's final concert. They both choose Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No 2 (remember the concerto competition with the demanding Rachmaninov 3rd in Shine?). Although Vi wins the right to play it at the concert in the end of the year, Juliet makes an implied Faustian pact with the devil, whom she found in an old playbook, to reverse her sister's fortunes and enhance her own.

What is so impactful is the lack of blood and screams; in fact, there are few, if any, jump scares. The terror is in Juliet's head, her obsession to win, her jealousy as the guiding principle. It's all very sotto voce, so to speak, a quiet doom tamped down by beautiful music and feelings kept just low enough to allow effective dialogue and feel the presence of a malevolent force, which may be the devil but surely is the "green-eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on." In some sense, I am reminded of the rivalry in Black Swan

About the Saint Sens, pianist Lise de la Salle wrote: "The highly lyrical first movement is an expression of late Romanticism. The second movement is as effervescent as a glass of champagne. And the final movement, a real whirlwind, a fantastic ride (wonderfully captured in this quasi-perpetual movement in triplets), is quite dizzying." These elements could be found in Nocturne.

"Welcome to the Blumhouse" is a "program of eight terrifying genre movies coming to Prime Video," and if the other seven are as good as this one, Halloween viewing will have matured to an intelligence and psychology worthy of a genre rarely this high class or intellectually satisfying.

Nocturne fmovies. This is a film that is wide open to interpretation.

It has it's good qualities. Most of it can be found in the tension between our main character and well, just about every aspect of her life. The music is phenomenal, without doubt.

The concept is interesting but I feel it could've been executed better. It was so vague and slow paced. For the most part, this was bland for me. Even though the best part was the final scene, overall, it just didn't impress me.

It is a different take on envy and if you like films that explore that subject from a psychological thriller sprinkled with some horror/supernatural aspects, check it out. It wasn't bad but it didn't get me where I hoped it would take me.

The movie started out so well, I thought I was in for a treat. Exceptional camera work and unusual use of sound, together with a compelling plot, this movie seemed to be going places, reminiscent of Roman Polanski's The Tenant.

Unfortunately the tone of the movie shifts with the plot near midpoint from a young student's sense of identity fracturing under the stress of creative disappointment to mundane sibling rivalry.

Generally, the acting is good, so is the direction. This movie could have been so much more.

The fourth and in my opinion best of the four announced Blumhouse films for Amazon Prime has arrived with "Nocturne". The film stars Sydney Sweeney and Madison Iseman as twins Juliet and Vivian. Both attend a noted music school and Vivian is a prodigy who has been accepted to Julliard upon completion of her studies.

Juliet had applied only to Julliard but was not accepted and this has caused issues with the faculty who had encouraged her to apply to other schools as well due to the 7% acceptance of Julliard and the longs odds of one or both of them being accepted.

When the top musician at the school kills herself, a spot to do a featured performance at an upcoming showcase arises and Vivian is asked to perform as she is clearly the next in line. Juliet comes into possession of a mysterious notebook filled with strange drawings that belonged to the recently departed former prodigy and she becomes obsessed with the drawings which seem to predict the future and in turn cause her to add drawings of her own to them. This starts a chain of events where Juliet sees a change in personality where she begins to covet her sister's talent, success, boyfriend, and more and begins a chain of events that will upturn their lives.

The film like the prior three Blumhouse Amazon films is not scary nor overly intense but it does have an engaging story and characters which will keep you watching and delivers an entertaining twist on films such as "The Competition" which depict the struggles and conflicts of aspiring musicians.

3.5 stars out of 5