Nocturne
The obsession for greatness is a time-worn formula for horror- Darren Aronofsky displayed that a decade ago with “Black Swan.” Personal rivalries, the drive to push our bodies further than they’ve gone before, and the psychological strain of the obsession are all rich territory for the genre. “Nocturne” takes all of these familiar tropes, and runs with them, and it leads to a final image that lingers, even if the story might not in the way it thinks.
Zu Quirke’s film begins with two sisters, Juliet (Sydney Sweeney) and Vivian (Madison Iseman), at a party being hosted by their parents as they prepare to return to school. They are twins, only minutes apart, and they are both pianists, studying at the Lindbergh Academy. Both have been playing since childhood, but Vivian has always been more naturally talented. They are returning to school for the first time since another student, Moria, took her own life. Moria had been selected at the featured concerto performer at the school’s upcoming concert, but her death means an opening has become available. Both Vivian and Juliet decide to enter, but when Juliet chooses to switch her piece to the same one Vivian was going to play, a rivalry is stoked that is only enhanced when Juliet finds a notebook of Moria’s, and suddenly, her fortunes seem to change.
“Nocturne” does a successful job of building a horror film out of a natural storytelling premise, one grounded in reality. The ways that Quirke includes the school’s faculty, and Juliet’s interactions with them, Vivian’s boyfriend, and the girls’s parents, as pivotal parts of Juliet’s descent into a supernatural story. It’s a smart, small-scale thriller that puts us in the experience of Juliet, and doesn’t give her, or us, a way out of the madness that her journey leads her towards. I enjoyed what it has going on.
