A psychotic mashup of The Strangers and American Horror Story: Freakshow

A while back I blogged here about the comic book-gore-exploitation insanity of the movie Adam Chaplin, which starred the studly director Emanuele De Santi. This trippy, surrealistic action-horror splatterfest was a bloody thrill ride from start to finish.

Well De Santi is back. Actually, he’s not flashing those burly man tits in his film Judy. He’s not even in it. And he’s left the over-the-top action gore behind to bring us a total mindfuck home invasion horror film.

Judy takes the simple day of a woman named Mary and throws her into a waking nightmare. Mary has a bizarre and heated run-in with some “street performers” while passing them in her car. They’re all dressed in black and white. The ringleader’s face is painted and she has a hoarse, threatening voice. Her sidekick is someone in a mask with lit up eyes. And then there’s whoever…or whatever…is in the nail-covered box they wheel around. WTF?

The Majority of Judy takes place in Mary’s home. Mary spends much of the time talking on the phone with her rather frustrating mother and her good friend. Mary has a dog named Judy. Judy goes missing. Mary quickly becomes convinced someone has come into her house and taken Judy.

Mary spends much of the movie psyching herself out, staring down shadowy halls and into dark, partially open doors. The movie relies on tight shots of her every move so you never get much of a sense of how much space she has in the place, which makes it incredibly claustrophobic. You begin to think Mary really is just making shit up in her head and that the dog simply ran away.

And just when you think nothing is going to happen, home invasion hell breaks loose. The Strangers can go suck on a pacifier because that shit is baby talk compared to this. And American Horror: Freakshow can give Twisty his own kiddie show because he’s Bozo compared to the freaks in this show.

Judy relies heavily on suspense and tension, plus De Santi delivers his brand of extreme gore in some fucked up moments near the end of the film as the terror comes to a head. Be prepared to cringe.

Or many heads. Heads of nails. Because there’s the nail box. The fucking nail box. And something is inside it…whimpering to get out….