An American seeks out the French scientist he believes is responsible for his increasing vampiric urges.
Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Claire Denis
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Beatrice Dalle, Tricia Vessey, Alex Descas
The two key texts of the horror genre - Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - collide in Claire Denis's 2001 erotic horror Trouble Every Day. Here the vampires are also Frankenstein's monster, creations of a mad scientist, one who works not in a Gothic castle but in a sterile modern laboratory.
At some point in the past, scientist Léo (Alex Descas) made some ambiguous medical discovery that drew the interest of a large American pharmaceutical company. It also left his wife, Coré (Beatrice Dalle), infected with a condition that can only be sated by animalistic bloodlust.
Unlike the usual wife guy scientists of horror movies, who commit ghastly crimes in the hopes of saving their spouses, Léo attempts to protect the outside world from his wife's compulsions, locking her in their home when he heads off to work every day. He really needs better security, however, as Coré continually finds a way to break free, luring horny men to their doom. Coré's condition has seen her regress to an almost childlike innocence, her post-feeding blood-caked mouth giving her the appearance of a toddler that just polished off a jam sandwich.
Another victim of Leo's ambition is Shane (Vincent Gallo), whose big pharma employers funded Léo's research. Arriving in Paris with his new wife June (Tricia Vessey), Shane disrupts their honeymoon by attempting to track down Léo. Shane's hotel room number - 321 - suggests a countdown, and Shane is indeed running out of time, as he is infected with the same sickness as Core, and finding it increasingly hard to resist his urges.
Arriving at the dawn of a new millennium, Denis's film served as a bridge between classic French erotic horror and the extreme violence of early 21st century gallic genre cinema that would come to be known as the New French Extremity. Denis recalls the golden era of European vampire erotica, the 1970s, with a moody, largely dialogue free film in the manner of Jean Rollin's blood and boobs chillers. A pair of junkies breaking into Léo's home in search of medication and finding a sexy but bloodthirsty vampire lying in wait is a scenario straight out of the Rollin playbook. The blustery, overcast, autumnal Paris we see here recalls the offseason Ostend of Harry Kumel's Daughters of Darkness.
Where Denis distances herself from such influences is in her film's portrayal of bloodlust. Unwitting supporting characters are drawn to the seductive nature of the vampires (along with Coré's male victims, a hotel maid falls under the spell of Shane), but Denis makes it clear that Shane and Coré are far from romantic figures. Their acts of bloodletting are filmed in grisly closeups, Denis's camera lingering on chewed and mangled body parts as the soundtrack pierces with the blood-curdling screams of their still alive victims.
These scenes are mirrored in how Denis shoots June from her husband's POV. The camera hones in on her body in a way that reduces her to a piece of meat, emphasising Shane's struggle to keep his hunger at bay. When the chambermaid leads the couple to their room, we see her neck from Shanes' POV as he likely imagines tasting the blood flowing through her jugular. Later, Denis repeats this angle in Shane's absence, as though to suggest the maid is subconsciously inviting his lust.
Trouble Every Day was subjected to boos at its Cannes premiere and received largely negative reviews on its release. Its obtuse narrative and lack of exposition may frustrate mainstream viewers, but fans of continental horror recognise the tradition Denis is both working in and advancing with this film. It's a film for those of us who appreciate a favouring of mood and atmosphere over narrative. Its plot is essentially that of a dozen b-movies, but at the time Denis's in-your-face approach was something fresh and perhaps understandably shocking. Compared to the edge lord filmmaking that would come out of France soon after, Denis's film stands out in being genuinely sexy and seductive in a way none of its NFE descendants would be. Perhaps this is down to the film being directed, lensed (Agnes Godard) and edited (Nelly Quettier) by women, who understand the confusing dichotomy of the vampire as both an alluring and repellent figure.
Trouble Every Day is on UK 4K UHD/bluray from August 18th.
