Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Intan Kieflie, Mandie Combe, Candice Leask, Jeffery Richards, Carolyn Masson, Mark Adams
Intro:
… a supernatural thriller that finds the right balance between jump scares and unnerving dread.
Filmmaker Stuart Simpson’s output has been wild and varied, involving talking axes (Demons Among Us), ice cream men on the verge of a nervous breakdown (Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla) and Russ Meyer-esque sea monster horror (El Monstro del Mar!). You know, the usual cinematic tropes.
For his most recent venture, Simpson pulls on the reins a little to provide a more grounded feature that looks at loss and grief. Okay, yes, there’s also black magic, murders, supernatural maids and creepy siblings, but we’re still in territory that some people like to refer to as ‘heightened horror.’
Cahya (Intan Kieflie) is desperately trying to make ends meet in Melbourne before the birth of her child. After losing her husband in a home invasion, she’s struggling to make enough money to pay the mortgage. When her housemate, and only source of income, leaves claiming that the house is haunted, Cahya decides enough is enough. After meeting with a psychic (Carolyn Masson) in the hopes of speaking to her husband, Cahya accepts a job as maid for Alfred (Jeffery Richards) and Francesca (Mandie Combe), a pair of eccentric siblings living in the sun-bleached countryside of Victoria.
Despite Alfred’s overbearing love for Tchaikovsky’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and Francesca’s domineering nature, Cahya is assured by retiring maid Nia (Candice Leask) that they’re okay once you get to know them. One look around the siblings’ dilapidated manor would suggest that Nia’s judgements of character are questionable at best. Then there’s the numerous spectres of burnt and mummified maids that only Cahya appears to see, leading the audience to think that she may not have chosen the best career path.
An Indonesian/Australian co-production, Sleeping Beauties works on a narrative that bounces between Cahya’s appointment with the psychic and her day-to-day duties as the new maid. As she begins to witness more horrific and seemingly violent apparitions around the manor, Simpson loops back to that fateful night with the psychic and its part in Cahya’s ability to interact with the dead. With so many moveable parts, there’s always the possibility of dropping one narrative thread for the other, but Simpson manages to keep the pace going before the final third act showdown.
It’s clear that all is not right with Jeffrey and Francesca, but to what extent isn’t immediately clear. Before then, we witness their passive aggressive bullying, and less than subtle moments of othering; whether it be Jeffrey’s seeming fetishization of Nia, or Francesca’s mistrust of anyone Asian.
Richards and Combe really sink their teeth into their roles, with the former particularly unhinged at times. Kieflie, for her part, never allows Cahya to stumble into generic screaming girl territory. Sure, she’s pregnant and alone, but she’s believably resourceful when she needs to be.
The film’s modest budget means there’s a rough quality to some scenes, but these moments are compensated by Simpson’s use of tension. With Sleeping Beauties, he has served up a supernatural thriller that finds the right balance between jump scares and unnerving dread.
