By Rose Crisman
The Binding, or Il Legame, in its original Italian language, is only found on Netflix, it is a new film which was released on October 2, 2020. This film features Mía Maestro, who was in The Strain, Alias, and The Twilight Saga and Riccardo Scamarcio, who was in John Wick: Chapter 2. This is an Italian production directed by Domenico Emanuele de Feudis with the story being based in Southern Italy, and filmed in the town of Bari. Domenico Emanuele de Feudis definitely did something new that was outside of his expertise. He is good at making short films that are less than 20 minutes. This film was 1 hour and 33 minutes, so it must have been a new territory for him to direct.
On a beautiful country road, a fiancé is inviting his fiancée and her daughter on a road trip to visit his mother for the first time and from their arrival, the suspense begins instantly as a turn of events progresses. There is some kind of evil lurking around the property and is trying to claim a peculiar and malicious curse on the daughter. Surrounding their property, the trees particularly, give you this menacing look, and is very foreboding. Out of the ordinary is a tarantula, whose bite is so potent that it does something. Then eventually, the fiancé’s mother is trying to save the curious young girl who is the pivot of the plot, yet the mother has a different point of view and doesn’t trust the fiancé’s mother. In the end, it’s up to the mother to save her before it is too late.
This film being suspenseful gives us thoughts of what will happen and you’ll be waiting for it to happen. The dialogues are spoken in Italian, where the characters convey themselves through unspoken words, through their facial expressions, body language, and actions. It is more powerful to see them convey through unspoken words, being more visual and believable, and yet it still is mysterious. It is filmed around a giant creepy house, showing both the inside and outside and giving us a sense of Gothic horror. The cinematography shows dull and drab colors that make it look more creepy. The angles of the camera is definitely a good set-up, with each different angle they take, I could sense something was bound to happen as suspense was building towards the end. Throughout the movie, the mood is already set as things are quiet, uneasy, and shadowy. Also, there is a symbol of turmoil in their family life seen repeatedly throughout the film around the house. The film gives you clues that will make you try and figure out what the hell is going on.
The main focus in this film is “family” all of the events that happen revolves around that concept, both good and evil. “The Binding”, as the title of the film, one side is trying to create a bind, and the other side is trying to break the bind.
This production is extremely visual, it shows some kind of fight against a force of evil nature. The atmosphere and characters are dramatic and this helps set the mood. I really like how this film starts and ends. The general quality of the film, action and dialogue within the characters, and the setting is unique because the film seems to grasp the concept of a historic style, which is really neat since we are in 2020, which is all about the new technology and CGI, which gives a more modern scary look. This film stays true to its authenticity and provides us with a slow-paced horror movie.
The film director did a quality job and successfully managed to put me in suspense till the end. I also noticed that this movie utilized most of their screen time on women, which is really enjoyable because most horror movies I see usually have equal amounts of female and male actors. This movie is not the best horror movie I’ve watched, but I still like it. It is a bit slow for my taste and it isn’t that scary. I personally prefer a bit more bone-chilling than this one. But if you like horror movies that are not gory and easy to watch, this one is for you.
Rating: 3/5