In this week’s Fiendish Flicks Friday, I’m taking a stab at the 1996 black comedy Curdled, presented by Quentin Tarantino, and starring Angela Jones and William Baldwin.
In Curdled, Gabriela is a young girl obsessed with murder after, as a child, she witnessed the death of a man out in front of her family’s bakery in Columbia. Played by Angela Jones, Gabriela is innocent, naive and macabre. Her hobby of collecting newspaper clippings, and doodling deaths, leads her to a job with a crime scene clean up crew in Miami, where the city is a flutter with news of a new nefarious serial slasher named, “The Blue Blood Killer.”
Charged with beheading Miami socialites, our murderer (played by Baldwin) comes to the attention of our misguided heroine, who jumps at the chance to scrub down his blood curdled crime scene. Gabriela, in following her gruesome curiosity, in turn comes to the lethal lothario’s attention. It’s a tango toss-up til the end, figuring out who will get the last laugh in this deadly dance.
Jones’ performance adds charm to this low-key tale, a trait that is often undeservedly overlooked. Adding a subtle, but appreciated, nod to Quentin Tarantino’s From Dusk till Dawn, Curdled is a fun, slightly campy tale of what happens if you delve too deeply into an unhealthy hobby. A little bit comedy, a little bit suspense, a little bit Film Noir, fans of films like Spanish cinema’s 2006 flick Volver will get a kick out of this little flick.
Curdled is currently available to stream on Netflix (U.S.)
Take a peek next week, when I look at the films of Masters of Horror Alumni Lucky McKee. – Ruby
