Sightlines · a viewing thread

Baroque Cruelty at Fever Pitch

A run of operatic, over-styled thrillers in which torment, envy, religious mania or chemical delirium is filmed with hallucinatory excess. Watch them close together and they rhyme on how style itself becomes the poison.

Apart from two widely seen American gateways, this is cult territory loved by fans of lurid maximalism. It's vivid and rarely slow, but often nasty and garish, so it's best saved for a night when you want to be rattled rather than comforted.