Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store, following the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences.
Peter Strickland's singular vision produces one of the most visually distinctive horror films of its era — dreamy, fetishistic department-store atmosphere shot with hypnotic, almost giallo-adjacent cinematography. The premise is gloriously absurd and executed with an unmistakable authorial voice that makes it genuinely one-of-a-kind. However the film loses significant momentum in its second half when the cursed dress transfers to a new protagonist, and the ending deflates rather than satisfies. Acting is committed and effectively deadpan throughout, serving the surreal tone well, but the episodic structure keeps it from being more than the sum of its arresting parts.