Celebrate Friday the 13th with Creepy Demonic Possession Film LUZ
We live in an era where horror is being amplified and people are actually giving it the time of day, which is absolutely awesome. There are an abundance of additions to subgenres that it’s almost hard to keep up with what’s coming out. Too much to watch and so little time. With that being said, I hadn’t heard about Luz until a friend of mine said not to miss it. When the opportunity came about to watch it, I knew I had to give it a shot.
Go into Luz completely blind. It’s one of those “you need to see it to believe it” type of films. Luz, in short, is about a cab driver named Luz (Luana Velis) who years earlier tricked a classmate into thinking she was pregnant then performed a summons on her. After a successful summoning, the demon that came to fruition is trying to find its way back to Luz who it so desperately wants to be with.
The first act brings the heat in that we’re truly given everything we need to know before the climax of the second act. A bruised and battered Luz meanders through an empty police station mumbling the same phrase over and over again before screaming at the front desk worker there. We then cut to Nora (Julie Reidler). Nora sits at a bar with a psychiatrist, Dr. Rossini (Jan Bluthardt), and discusses with him how her former Chilean girlfriend performed a summons, while seducing him between drinks. Seduction leads to Nora transferring a demon from herself to Dr. Rossini and the atmospheric mindbender begins.
Luz is brought into an interrogation room and put in a hypnotic state with the demonic doctor while Nora, the police commissioner and her translator are present. Luz reenacts past events as the demon that’s in the doctor tries to attach itself to Luz with each passing minute. It’s hard to explain what goes on without giving too much away but it’s an act that you need to pay attention. Various different scenarios are played out and Luz takes form of different characters under her hypnotic state until the demon controls the room. The plot is a convoluted puzzle at times, but it works.
Luz is impressive in that there is a minimal cast with multiple dialects in a handful of locations. Upon ending, it does feel like some things could be cut short to make this a short film instead of a 70 minute feature length, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless. Luana Velis deserves all the applause for her leading role. She masters various roles while speaking different languages, and makes it look easy. She gives all the spooky vibes this film needs and supplies the spellbinding pop the ending yearns for. Luz is Tilman Singer’s directorial debut. He created something so mind-bogglingly beautiful that his future career is going to be bright. You can tell he has a lot of artistic thought up his sleeve and I wouldn’t be surprised if he rocked the horror world in years to come. If you’re the type of person who enjoys demonic possession films, don’t miss Luz.
