Macabre…ish Horror Review: Velvet Buzzsaw

Velvet Buzzsaw, 2019/ 1 hr 53 min

Josephina (Zawe Ashton) has a complicated relationship with her art critic friend, Morf(Jake Gyllenhaal) and she is slipping at work.

When a reclusive neighbor, Mr. Dease (Alan Mandell) passes away she helps herself to his art. Possessions that he insisted were to be discarded of after his death. Everyone who sees the paintings are enthralled with them, there is something other worldly about them.  Soon the word gets around about her finds and she is strong armed by her boss, Rhodora (Rene Russo) and forced into a partnership in the sale of the works.

During the archival process, one painting seems to be bleeding. Meanwhile, the art critic, having obtained his own exclusive deal concerning the art, researches the artist and finds the man was a mystery.

The trouble begins when an employee, Bryson (Billy Magnussen) of the gallery steals some of the art and immediately lights himself on fire while driving, crashes into a fuel station and then is attacked by characters in a random painting. This all happens in minutes.

Now, Rhodora thinks he might shaking her down because he has not been seen since he was sent to put the paintings in storage. It’s not just him though, as interest ramps up, everyone is interested in the mysterious Mr. Dease. What is uncovered about him is terrible and the more that is unearthed, the stranger things become with all involved and people begin to die.

One person after another in the local art circle is dropping dead, in one gruesome way after another. And in an attempt to survive, Morf, warns Rhodora to stop the sell of Dease’s works, he’s been having visual and audio ‘hallucinations’ and to him, the writing is on the wall. Greed might kill them all.

This was a really interesting movie! The concept and story was so well done and the build up was worth the wait. The CG was also well done and made some moments more trippy and terrifying. The kill scenes give more of the appearance of being more graphic than they really are and there is a lot of blood.

It really makes you feel like you’ve seen a lot more than you really have. Same with the adult scenes, it’s all a masterful suggestion of graphic rather than an actuality. This also has Queer characters and is LGBTQIA+ friendly.