ARAGNE: Sign of Vermillion - Reviews

Sentai Studios 2018 CGI horror flick is pretty horrific yes, but it is spoilt by its muddled and mixed-up story-telling. We would rather not have to dig around on the internet to look for some fan’s explanation of the plot. Central character is the doe-eyed Alice-in-wonderland-like character Rin who is creeped-out by her apartment block and the scary characters that frequent it. She is on some sort of medication which she uses to control her persistent and freakish delusions. She sees gigantic bugs everywhere and these hallucinations are scaring the living daylights out of her. This 75-minute feature tracks her descent into madness as she enters a surreal world in which nobody, least of all the audience, knows what is real and what is delusion. Yes the visuals are stunning and scary as hell but they are also cliched by equal measure. It all rather falls down with its clumsy handling of the story-line. Or story-lines.

The central weirdness seems to be wrapped around multiple central narratives. Is this a movie about a disease caused by industrial waste? Is it a psychological thriller about a mentally disturbed young woman haunted by memories of a childhood friend she killed? Is it a sci fi tale of World War Two super soldiers? Is it a supernatural tale of human spirits appearing as insects? Yes. It is all these things. Confused? Yes, we were. If all these plot-lines were consistent with each other then we might have called it sophisticated but the whole really doesn’t gel well from its fragmented parts. It is all super horrific then finishes leaving the audience to scratch its collective head about what the heck it all meant. We have no idea. It was entertaining but utterly pointless like one long heavy metal video with lots of cool stuff in that doesn’t need to make any sense. Ultimately disappointing. The CGI seems to work in making the characters look like marionettes but that isn't saying much. Senseless.

There's a lot of pretty imagery and a sort of interesting story but it falls through on execution. Really just a long art project.