Movie Review Angelica

Angelica (2017) 

Directed by Mitchell Lichtenstein 

Written by Mitchell Lichtenstein 

Starring Jena Malone, Janet McTeer, Tovah Feldshuh 

Release Date February 7th, 2015 

Angelica starring Jena Malone has had quite a struggle to get to the big screen. The film was completed and shown to festival audiences all the way back in 2015. Only now, however, is this Mitchell Lichtenstein-directed Victorian-era thriller starring Jena Malone finally making it to a release date. I have no insight as to what has held the film back from release, though the strange and ambitious story and daring sexuality may have had a role to play. Angelica is not a movie that mainstream marketers would love to be assigned.

Angelica tells the story of Constance, the mother of Angelica, both of whom are portrayed by Jena Malone in an apt, if slightly confusing choice. Constance is working in a small shop when she meets Dr. Joseph Bardon, or Bardoni, (Ed Stoppard) though he prefers to downplay his Italian roots. Bardon falls for Constance immediately and begins to court her and soon marry her. This being the Victorian age, Constance is a virgin at marriage and when the two have sex on their honeymoon it is a revelation for her.

This revelation unfortunately turns harrowing when Constance nearly dies giving birth to their first and only child, Angelica. Doctors, being quarrelsome, Victorian fools, inform Constance that due to the difficult pregnancy and birth that she can no longer have sex. This is nonsense, of course, but this being Victorian era England, it’s a common bit of a bad advice and it goes immediately to Constance’s head. As Constance denies her desires for her husband and begins spending nights curling up with Angelica to avoid him and sublimate her desires, something strange begins to take hold of the household.

As Angelica grows older and Constance continues to freeze out her husband on doctor’s orders, they practically call her a whore simply for wanting to sleep with her husband for pleasure. Constance begins to have visions of some sort of viral presence floating in the air near her daughter. This floating specter takes on several, almost corporeal forms and Constance feels them in a way that seems to reflect the desires of her husband and herself. Slowly, Constance convinces herself that her sexual desires are manifesting as an attack on her daughter, as if a demon were punishing her sexual desire by threatening the child.

Find my full length review in the Horror Community on Vocal