From directors Ben and Chris Blaine, comes the bizarre and beautiful f***ed up Fairytale – Nina Forever. The hit film will make it’s limited theatrical and VOD debut this Friday, February 12th. It stars Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Abigail Hardingham, Cian Barry, Elizabeth Elvin and David Troughton.
Holly wants to save Rob, has fallen in love with him. She is training to be a paramedic and works a dead end job in a supermarket where Rob is the only remarkable thing; lost and angry since the death of his girlfriend Nina. Drawn into a relationship, the first time they’re in bed together so is Nina. A tangled and bloody mess of broken limbs, she is very much dead but still here, still talking, still angry…
However Holly doesn’t freak out and run – she is determined to be the one who heals Rob’s wounds. She can deal with the dead girl sharing their bed, their lives, their minds. If it’s what Rob needs, it’s what Holly will do, whatever the consequences…
When Nina Forever opens up with Holly talking to some friends about how intense having sex with Rob would be after he’s been so intensely grieving the loss of his girlfriend Nina, who was tragically killed, you know that this film experience is about to take you on a ride that is difficult to prepare for. Equal parts drama, comedy and horror, Nina Forever is absolutely one of the most troubling and fascinating looks into the darker aspects of love and relationships with baggage. That baggage in this case just happens to be the gruesome ghost of an ex-and-very-much-dead-girlfriend who only appears when Rob and Holly are having sex.
Abigail Hardingham’s performance of Holly, is truly remarkable because you’re never quite so sure of why she puts up with Rob and his ex who haunts them every time they decide to sex it up. Which is quite often surprisingly, especially since Nina leaves a gory trail of blood every time she appears and then disappears post-intercourse mid-after sex cuddle time. It’s truly weird but it works here because the performances are so genuine. Cian Barry’s Rob is damaged and the situation of him being forced to move forward with his life when the deceased love of his life pops up in the most absurd of situations is certainly a difficult concept to grasp.
Fiona O’Shaughnessy, who plays Nina, is wonderful, sassy and unsettling as all hell. You’re never sure if she’s just taunting this couple, accepting that Rob has moved on, or if she’s moments away from scaring the ever-loving shit out of them. That’s the thing, this film doesn’t opt for jump scares. Not once. The horror element is played carefully and with great finesse as directors Ben and Chris Blaine decided to make Nina Forever as straight as possible even with it’s over-the-top concept. Is the movie disturbing? Sure, I don’t see how you could say otherwise when a blood-soaked and mangled corpse decides to pop up into the bed when two people are going at it.
Nina Forever is well acted, written and one of the most intriguing romantic horror films in some time. Don’t get it twisted as something in the vein of “It Follows”, which was a similar movie in concept alone. Nina Forever is dead serious, dead funny and most importantly of all – original.
Rating: [star rating=”4″]