Amer

Amer (2009) is a Belgian-French horror film you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. It runs almost without dialogue: color, extreme close-ups and sound carry the whole thing. The look is a love letter to 1970s Italian giallo.

Three chapters, one woman named Ana. As a child she roams a gloomy mansion where a dead grandfather and a black-clad maid frighten more than any creature could. As a teenager she feels strangers' eyes and the new pull of her own body. As an adult she returns to the decaying family home, where a leather glove over her mouth and a blade against skin blur dread and desire into one. Words are scarce; everything rides on sensation.

Cattet and Forzani build the picture on texture: the grain of film, the creak of floorboards, the rustle of fabric stand in for plot. It rewards viewers who watch cinema like a dream and don't need every image explained. Everyone else may bounce right off it. Stream Amer (2009) online on iFILM.