French Braid

Braid is a highly unique, highly conceptual horror/thriller, one in which the chills spin their way toward us in a burgeoning, organic, feminine perspective. French actress/writer/director Mitzi Peirone pitches a fever dream that stands out in a genre filled with monsters, slashers, and evil entities. The movie takes on a double meaning of sorts, with childhood friends Daphne, Petula, and Tilda braided to one another forever, and a scene in which two of them are literally braided to one another by the third. There is a game afoot, and it's a twisted, sinister one in which no one leaves, everyone must play, and no outsiders are allowed. Such an organic, subtle horror piece as this could easily be told in black and white, but Braid makes the most of its color, blasting stylish effects and psychedelic waking dream sequences that force the audience, and the characters alike, to question reality.

Petula and Tilda are low-level drug dealers, flailing their way through life, hooked on the illegal substances they're supposed to be selling. This doesn't bode well with their head dealer, nor with the police, who raid their motel room and confiscate their illicit stash. Petula also doubles as an internet foot-fetish vixen, which helps her get out of one sticky jam when the two escape to the nearest train sans tickets. Their first and only stop? To Montpellier, to the dilapidated mansion of their childhood friend, Daphne. Daphne keeps a hidden safe in the house, and if Petula and Tilda can locate it and steal the money from it, their problems with their jilted dealer will be a thing of the past. 

In order to re-enter Daphne's isolated world, the girls will have to resume their childhood game, featuring an exclusive cast of Mommy, Daughter, and Doctor. The three girls are bound to as as much when they're in each other's company. They must strictly stick by the rules of Daphne's game, and if they decide to break character with the role they are supposed to be playing, then the already unstable Daphne will lose it and boot them from her home. Daphne is Mother, Tilda is Daughter, and Petula plays the role of Doctor. They all must proceed in their roles as check-ups are given, clandestine affairs are simulated, and bountiful, oddball, juvenile meals are served for the three. Petula and Tilda bide their time, engaging in a bit of their stolen stash of drugs to help them through all the grueling nuances of the game. This introduces psychedelic, artsy scenes of the girls roaming the mansion grounds, devising their strategy to upend Daphne. The shots reference a trippy, hazy Alice in Wonderland adventure, shot like a music video over a brooding, classical score.

When the girls were playing the game as children, Daphne fell out of her treehouse, crushing her womb, and crushing her ability to conceive later in life. As children, Petula and Tilda are questioned by Detective Siegel in the wake of the accident. As the girls become young adults, Siegel once again re-enters their lives, this time searching for Petula and Tilda, who are wanted fugitives. He suspects Daphne of harboring them due to their childhood links, but he can't proceed any further without a warrant. She holds him at her own deranged bay, while Petula and Tilda plan their heist, and their hasty exit from the property. Daphne pulls off a Joan Crawford-esque Mommy Dearest impersonation with her role as Mother, slightly mixed in with hints of Piper Laurie from Carrie. She's a lonely girl, has been for a very long time, and she's willing to go to great lengths to keep her forever besties in her clutches. 

When Siegel returns with a warrant, things are already headed south inside the mansion with the girls. Daphne grows suspicious in her own demented way, Petula and Tilda are swept up into the rules of the game while trying to serve their own agenda, and Siegel follows their lives from one nefarious act to another until the threat he poses can be neutralized. The girls break out the shovels and the blood to go with their sunglasses and cigarettes, like a trio of too-cool, bourgeoisie butchers. 

It's clear that Daphne is no good for the outside world, a traumatized shut-in with mental issues. The same can be said of Petula and Tilda, who are only their true selves when they're wrapped in the swarthy layers of the game. Mother, Daughter, and Doctor navigate the dos and and don'ts of the role-playing dress-up game, blushing through a fever dream of dementia, hallucinations, and extreme isolation. The memories and the safety that the game have to offer is appealing to all three of them at different times, and in different ways.

Braid is considered a horror movie, and while it contains one, maybe two truly horrific scenes, it's a subtle entry to the genre, which I found pleasantly surprising. Watching it is comparable to peeling an onion. You take more and more layers from it with every viewing. I appreciate writer/director Mitzi Peirone's feminine perspective in the endeavor, surmising what it might be like if an innocent game of house turned morbid and bloody. She also adds to the film quite a bit of style, incorporating vivid colors, precision musical accompaniment, and enough shabby chic and French decor to appeal to the refined aesthete. Braid is streaming on Amazon Prime, and I suggest a good viewing, or two, or three, before it disappears into a twisted, vintage ball of ether. I look forward to future offerings from the French writer/director.