Director Guerrilla Metropolitana creates a unique piece of horror filmmaking totally unprecedented in history.
Arthouse / Avant-Garde cinema mixed with extreme horror and hardcore depravity, but blended visually and sonically in a very beautiful and artistic fashion.
The structure of the film is not a classic / traditional one like in most movies.
The London based Italian director (who is also the writer, producer, co-editor amongst other roles on this project) creates a ‘mirror like” story where images are bounced against each other and create a multiple effect of interpretations.
Highly psychedelic and ultra realistic at the same time (most of the outdoor shots were filmed with a hand camera in pure ‘guerrilla filmmaking’ style with no permits and, risking legal troubles with the law), this film brings the viewer in a total state of hallucinations and irresistible uncomforted and each time one watches it will see it differently (some of the technique used here were not far different from those used in hypnosis).
The story revolves around a dysfunctional middle-class family in the English countryside of Essex. Each member is deeply traumatized by the loss of a young girl (who is also part of the family). From this point on, the movie takes us into the darkest corners of human behavior of these individuals, until the unexpected happens.
Sublime beauty and terrifying moments blend together (the film goes from moments of complete ecstasy to moments of extreme gore and sexual graphic violence, including cannibalism, necrophilia, incest, masturbation, rape and perversion).
Guerrilla Metropolitana, whose reputation was already the one of an unconventional filmmaker (due to his short horror film BITS and the provocative medium-length horror film about British film censorship and the elite THE CENSOR – A British horror tale of Real politics and social-moral code, all visible on YouTube and with multiple reviews worldwide) has finally got his real big break with this totally insane feature film (just over an hour long).
Publicly screened at the Guttercast and Catskill Film Festival in USA, DARIUSS was initially turned down by several distribution companies due to its hardcore extreme content and unusual style, until it got the interest of SRS CINEMA who decided to buy the picture and sell it as bluray.
The original artwork of the film contains as letter I (of the title DARIUSS) an enlarged photo of the director’s own erected penis. The current bluray from SRS CINEMA has put an alternative artwork whilst the self distributed dvd version does have the original one. The film has received immediate attention from many on the internet and attracted non-traditional horror fans. People who are into a more deep and perverse type of cinema.
In a short period of time Guerrilla Metropolitana released quite a few interviews for several American podcasts, most notably the extremely controversial one called ‘UNCENSORED’ (currently on YouTube) where the director talks extensively about the film and his vision of cinema.
The director took nearly two years to make the film as it is (9 months for the complex editing work alone) and the intensity of this work and his paranoid attention to details caused him three mental breakdowns.
The last one was so severe that it required therapy. Everything in DARIUSS is well thought out, every detail and nothing is left undone. From the frantic direction to the extremely complicated editing, from the music (largely written by the director himself) to the ultra realistic analogical special effects and the powerhouse performances of the entire cast, particularly the Italian stage actress Ila Argento (as the psychotic wife), the film goes from child-like tenderness to human brutality, madness and perversion of unspeakable levels.
As some independent film reviewers called it, DARIUSS is a disturbing masterpiece with no precedent in movie history and its unusual style allows it to go way beyond the horror genre itself.
This is not a movie that an average popcorn horror fan would appreciate.
On the contrary, this is a cinematographic horror voyage of total insanity that can really satisfy those who are looking for something truly different and way beyond conventional boundaries.
The film contains a series of visual and sonic subliminal messages and from a cinematographic standpoint it is influenced by various elements (French Nouvelle Vague, German Expressionism, Dark Erotica, 8 mm Underground, painting like imageries and meta-cinema).
It is truly a work of sick art, perfectly blended in all of its strength and power.
Some already called the film a possible future cult due its uniqueness and shocking originality.
Whilst not for everybody, this film leaves undoubtedly its own mark and as the director said already, it is a visionary film for those who are ‘out of the box’, not for the ordinary ones.
Guerrilla Metropolitana has reached the ultimate act of total cinematographic expression and madness with this piece of filmmaking and the work present in this film breaks most traditional boundaries of films, as we know them.
Dialogue cease to be vital and visuals rule the narrative of storytelling as well as sound and other elements.
Expressions, body language and physicality are the face of this film, whilst the idea behind is cleverly manifested through a very elaborated editing, multiple audio sounds (some backwards) and unusual pace; (technically, this film was made more like a studio experimental album rather than a movie). DARIUSS is an uncomfortable yet irresistible journey of blood, bodily fluids and madness and it is destined to have its space amongst cult followers.
Order DARIUSS Blu-ray:
https://srscinemastore.com/products/dariuss-blu-ray?fbclid=IwAR1eCPgd8DMwJQMPmsopbfHHxHsO50xdaKpljv7jUEm7kjrnJEADRmhLPJ8