Piercing

Nicolas Pesce returns with more bleakly comic horror, with Christopher Abbott and Mia Wasikowska as the superb central pairing

Film Review by Joe Goggins | 15 Feb 2019
  • Piercing
Film title: Piercing
Director: Nicolas Pesce
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Christopher Abbott
Release date: 15 Feb
Certificate: 18

Anybody who caught Nicolas Pesce's directorial debut would have known better than to expect anything gentle from his follow-up. The Eyes of My Mother was an ostensibly brutal tale chronicling death, disfigurement and decidedly unconventional family dynamics, and yet the 29-year-old New York native carried it off with a delicious undercurrent of pitch-black humour. Piercing carries on in the same vein; the perennially underrated Christopher Abbott is superb as a would-be murderer who plots to kill a prostitute to prevent his murderous urges being taken out on his infant child.

When Mia Wasikowska's Jackie shows up to what should be the scene of the crime, she proves more than a match and what ensues is a darkly funny and consistently unsettling two-hander that explores S&M with a beguilingly light touch. If you thought Dexter or Killing Eve handled this kind of subject matter blithely, Piercing will give you pause for thought. At this pace, Pesce is quickly becoming a master of this particular medium. [Joe Goggins]


Released 15 Feb by Vertigo