Divinity

Thanks to the outstanding monochrome cinematography by Danny Hiele, Alcazar takes us to a land beyond color. It has an aesthetic foundation in the glossy designer fragrance ads in the early 90s, which then started mutating into the unimaginable. The black and white splendors Alcazar are that likes not seen since far gone nights in a tent with LSD and a camper TV. He smartly increases the spectacle quotient as the movie progresses, getting us to a big juicy peak at the finale. Also waiting at the crazy climax is the splendid stop-motion animation by Misha Klein. This slapped a perma-grin on my puss. Stop motion at the right moment in a cult movie is like those fancy desserts they set on fire. And the final scene is so absolutely bonkers it instantly shows Divinity is midnight movie royalty. 

“…does cult the way cult was done in the day behind midnight.”

The music by DJ Muggs and Dean Hurley is the perfect sea to be sailing on while your mind and the film hook up. It has a tranquil pulse with electric valleys that you can glide through the sights. The scenery is plenty sexy in stunningly elegant ways along the way. Part of this is because the female characters are there to participate in transactional sex. How far this sex work does or doesn’t define them is up for discussion, as it is whether this is a step forward, backward, or some strange sideways.

Any which way, the visuals are amazing, as the shadows are put to work as much as the lights are. These shadows help make the allusions Alcazar includes later in the film to The Elephant Man all the more striking. The theaters will be ringing with the sound of vape pens falling in the aisles due to dropping jaws. Nice to see Dorff in a sci-fi movie again, as I have felt he is suited for it since Space Truckers. Thorne’s role is essentially identical to Franco Nero’s otherworldly master in The Visitor, and she pulls it off with style. Thorne can Nero with the best of them here as she adds more cult stardom to her credits.

Divinity does cult the way cult was done in the day behind midnight. If you didn’t know you can trip without color, roll one as long as your arm for this happening.