Directed by Carlson Young
Written by Pierce Brown and Carlson Young
Starring Carlson Young, Udo Kier, Vinessa Shaw, Dermot Mulroney
Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes
Unrated
In select theaters and on demand October 15

by Audrey Callerstrom, Associate Editor

When was the last time opening credits stood out to you as a piece of stand alone art? That’s one, among many (albeit not enough) ways that actress Carlson Young’s directorial debut The Blazing World stands out. Sweeping instrumentals accompany footage of what might be red sheets, but could also be blood. The title for the film appears in a hard-to-read font that looks like it’s made of puzzle pieces.

The film’s opening scene had me genuinely curious. It’s that curiosity that keeps me watching multiple movies each week. We are introduced to a wealthy family with a mother (Vinessa Shaw), father (Dermot Mulroney), and young twin daughters Margaret and Elizabeth (Lillie Fink and Josie Fink). The daughters play with fireflies near a willow tree, but things quickly turn dark. While the father screams and hits the mother, they don’t notice that, outside, Elizabeth has fallen into the family pool and drowned. Meanwhile, Margaret is beckoned to step into a portal to another realm by none other than popular German character actor Udo Kier. This whole scene is set to The Nutcracker Suite. It’s breathtaking, picturesque, and weird. Where is Carlson Young taking us?

Fast forward, and Margaret is in her mid-20s and called to her childhood home by her mother and father, who are preparing to sell it. While the film is visually inspiring, it’s these “real world” scenes with Margaret’s mother and father that fall flat. Dermot Mulroney saddles into another dirtbag role, which we’ve begun to expect from him at this point. Shaw delivers her lines with uncertainty. It doesn’t help that she’s only 14 years older than Young. Margaret meets some high school friends at a club and experiences hallucinations. These scenes are lit like the Pop’s diner scenes in Riverdale, where everyone is cast in either blue or red light. The vivid use of color is one of the film’s strongest assets. Even if scenes start to drag, there’s usually something colorful to distract you if you wait. 

The film shifts from a narrative about a grieving family and takes Margaret to a magical realm where she is met by Lained (Kier) and told to complete certain tasks to rescue her sister from what is essentially purgatory. Young, who co-wrote the film with Pierce Brown, author of the sci-fi series Red Rising, has a flair for distinct and dreamlike visuals. She clearly draws inspiration from the films of Tim Burton, Tarsem Singh, and Guillermo Del Toro, to name a few. The Blazing World owes much of its story to Labyrinth, and the juxtaposition of gruesome scenes against bright colors reminded me of The Neon Demon. The look of the film also reminded me of the visually dazzling clunker Paradise Hills.

The Blazing World kind of yadda-yaddas its story, which doesn’t reveal anything new to the audience or attempt to dive into deeper themes. Many scenes could benefit from tighter pacing. An interaction between Margaret and a demon seems to include the same bits of dialogue on a loop. It’s a marvel that Young and Brown put together such a vivid and otherworldly film shot entirely in Austin, TX. The effects are seamless. Margaret treks across a desert, enters a demon realm, and gets locked in a neon blue box, all within the confines of, I expect, a movie studio. The film’s other strong asset is the musical score by Isom Innis of Foster the People. The score and all of the music choices made in this film punctuates its otherworldliness. It seamlessly combines classical music, modern chillwave songs, and a synthy ‘80s score. The Blazing World brings you into a candy-colored nightmare dreamworld, but, like Labyrinth, it suffers from a lack of plot (which Labyrinth tried to make up for with songs). Margaret feels guilty about her sister’s death, but not for reasons we ever understand. We see that she clearly lacks affection from her parents, but they’re two-dimensional. The Blazing World left me wanting more, more depth, more story, more twists and turns. But still, this is a film where Udo Kier snacks on giant pink fireflies, and you will for certain not find that in any other film.