Experimental cinema is, perhaps, the most divisive of any filmmaking style. Since the beginning of motion pictures, established directors, and those working in the fringes of the industry, have created works that both challenge and polarize. 2023’s Dariuss is such a film. Guerrilla Metropolitana is such a director.

Honest film criticism has been on the ropes for some time. The internet has been taken over by young men and women who would rather be called “influencer” than “critic”. These are folks who pontificate about the mastery of three-hour comic book movies, while denouncing any serious film that runs past 90 minutes. The so-called “influencer”doesn’t have an educated language regarding films, nor do they care to dive into cinema history that goes back any further than the 1990s. Attention seekers, the lot, they are voices of a pearl-clutching generation that finds everything offensive and ORDERS their followers/listeners to be angry. Today’s online reviewers (again, I am only speaking of a certain type) couldn’t handle the films of Pasolini, Bertolucci, and craftsmen of their ilk. There is no doubt that the boldly experimental pictures of Guerrilla Metropolitana would send them to therapy.

Understanding the problem with this type of online movie “reviewing” is relevant when examining the work of a filmmaker such as Metropolitana. A studied knowledge of cinema and an open mind should color any review. If one doesn’t have an understanding of film history (or is unwilling to learn), how can one write about a movie beyond “this was cool” and “I had a good time”?

With the deeper, off-the-grid, experimental pictures, clever directors use heavy symbolism and refuse to hold the audience’s hand. These types of films always polarize, while many turn off most viewers; Pasolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom is a prime example of experimental art. While disturbing and grotesque, the filmmaker had something important to say through such off-putting imagery.

Sometimes, we must cut through what we find unsettling to discover a filmmaker’s true intentions.

Guerrilla Metropolitana’s vision is an extremely graphic and unapologetic mind-bender of pure horror. The tragic weight of grief and the loss of sanity collide as a family descends into madness and the very definition of a living nightmare. For the film’s characters, a shared pain seems to fuel the most disturbing acts of insanity and perverse emotional violence and sexual release.

Dariuss is a film that is certainly designed to shock, but this isn’t exploitation. The director has created an interesting piece that holds something deeper at its core; a tale of trauma-tinged depravity with directorial echoes of Ken Russell-esque surrealism.

Metropolitana is a director who refuses to adhere to any previously-set filmmaking guidelines. While certainly more unrestrained than a gives-no-fucks director such as Abel Ferrara, Metropolitana shares the same anti-establishment warrior spirit. There are no boundaries in his films and the provocateur moniker is well-earned.

As we watch a family lose themselves to emotional destruction and fall into pure insanity, sex and (especially) the act of masturbation become something macabre and dangerous, as do the many taboos (take that word seriously) that see this broken unit succumb to the blackness of a betrayed soul.

Among this world of misery and despair is the presence of a serial killer (played by the director) who has come to the family’s home to defile and destroy what little humanity is left inside them. When the man of the house interrupts the murderer’s sick agenda, the lines between evil intent and bloodlust are purposefully blurred.

Where does such a darkness come from? What does it take to send one over the edge into madness? Perhaps loss and a suffering that cannot be overcome is the real evil. The audience will bear witness to extreme perversion, but look deep into the images. There are answers within, although you may not like them.

The film is performed without dialogue. The disturbing imagery is matched by a properly grotesque sound design and deceptively peaceful piano compositions. The cast (Ila Argento, Marie Antoinette de Robespierre, Sarah Isabèl) goes for broke. Metropolitana has set a canvas where nothing is forbidden and his performers dive into their creativity with a willing abandon. Limits? To hell with them. This is a free-spirited horror movie with artful ambitions and a dedicated desire to shun the boundaries of the art form. Whatever a viewer thinks of this film, there IS an art to its design. The filmmaker has a real story to tell. The choice is to do so through a profoundly disturbing atmosphere. This will work for the adventurous, but will turn away the standard horror lover.

Dariuss is not an easy watch and the film is not to be taken lightly. This is a bold vision of pain and death, and of blood and sexual disconnection. What this film does with the rebellious freedom of filmmaking without a net is to create something perversely haunting and (whatever side one finds themselves) terrifyingly profound.

Strikingly, the director manages to reach a dark beauty in certain moments. Perhaps those who are paying close attention will have the same experience..

Guerrilla Metropolitana is to be applauded for his unfiltered vision, disturbing as it may be.

I won’t soon forget the unique cinematic experience that was Dariuss and look forward to future works from this uniquely bizarre filmmaker.

Darius
Written and Directed by Guerrilla Metropolitana
Starring Ila Argento, Marie Antoinette de Robespierre, Sarah Isabèl, Archibald kane, Medusa S, Guerrilla Metropolitana
NR, 60 Minutes