Lucia (Ester Exposito) is a go-go dancer in an ultra-popular Madrid nightclub. She jumps off her platform during the middle of a song making a beeline to the club offices where she breaks into a locker and swipes a large duffle bag. One of the bouncers spots her wondering why she is not on stage demanding to see what's in the bag. They scuffle Lucia manages to get out suffering a significant wound. Desperate with few options, She heads to her sister Rocio (Angela Cremonte) and niece Alba Ines Fernandez) apartment in the bad part of town. Little does she know that people are trying to get out of the Venus apartments more urgently then she is trying to get. in. As Lucia is arriving Rocio has packed up Alba fleeing the apartment in the night tired of the noises upstairs, bad dreams, and sludge coming from the taps. They make it to the stairwell when they run into the wounded Lucia headed their way.
Director Jaume Balaguero crafts a horror/thriller contained mainly in the setting of one apartment complex. Lucia is hiding out from the criminal employer she stole from while Rocio is trying to get rid of her estranged always in trouble kid sister so she and her daughter can leave once and for all. The duffle bag is filled with synthetic drugs that Lucia hopes to see with the help of a friend. Her employers are sure Lucia had help and Rocio has disappeared leaving Lucia to get to know and take care of her niece Alba. She ventures out with Alba but sees heavies scouting the area having found her abandoned car. Back in the building, Alba's only child age friend is throwing a birthday party a couple of floors below. Writer Fernando Navarro slowly shifts the focus of the threat to Lucia from the external where her criminal pursuers are lurking to inside the Venus apartments starting with events at the birthday party. The neighbour's mother aunts, and other female relatives are present. A strange occurrence since everyone else seems set on leaving the building. The females ask Lucia some very personal questions that put our protagonist on the spot foreshadowing the direct nature of these women that will feature more as the narrative marches ahead.
Venus is a horror film that witches from a heist/gangster, hunter/hunted to something more spiritual and ritualistic along the way. The moment of the switch is plain, obvious, and shocking, especially to the unfortunate soul whose on the wrong side of the moment. Ester Exposito who is best known for the Netflix series Elite gives a very physical performance seeming quite at home in her first horror film role. There are memorable killings, and plot point that seem unimportant at first only to pay off big later. In amongst the blood and gore, lies the development on a strong bond between aunt Luísa and niece Alba that unite the pair helping them in the present and setting them up for a strong future.
*** Out of 4.
Venus | Jaume Balaguero | 2022 | U.S./Spain | 100 Minutes.
Tags: Night Club, Go Go Dancer, Theft, Designer Drugs, Hunt, Apartment Complex, Full Moon, Ritual, Queen of Sorrows.
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