Intimacy Horror ‘Corpus’ Feels Downright Claustrophobic [Fantasia Review]  

I wish I could say an on-again, off-again lover never invited me to a big deserted house with the false promise of fun, where I would watch them instead be seduced by mysterious gay sirens. But unfortunately, Corrin Evans’ film Corpus is a little too relatable. The only difference is that Corpus takes place in New York City in the late ’90s. Our intrepid final boy is instead photographer Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg), whose burden is being the resident dealer whom everyone hounds for drugs. Viewers bear witness to his nightlife misadventures, including the return of Vince (Brodie Townsend). This toxic, messy ex — lover? fling? friend? — breezes back into Sayo’s life and somehow convinces him to travel to a remote mansion for a so-called rager.

As you would expect from a film premiering at Fantasia Festival, Sayo, Vince and Ross (Michael Vlamis, star of The Resort) arrive at a mostly deserted house. Their only fellow guests are feral Wren (Nuha Jes Izman, seen in Yellowjackets), ever-flirty Billie (co-writer Lily Cowles, who appeared in Antebellum), and sly Cata (Ching Valdes-Aran). The three women are so beautiful and strange. As a viewer, you know instantly not to trust any of them. But, even as a seasoned horror fan, you won’t be able to quite put your finger on what’s wrong.

The film opens with an unforgettable clue: A young wannabe model faces the casting couch from hell, forced to deepthroat a plague-doctor-esque wicker mask. Even outside of the supernatural element, you know no good can come of this. Once you meet Sayo and company, you’re subconsciously left wondering how it all ties together. If you’re the kind of cinephile who loves a sprawling home with a secret — not so much demons or lost souls, but the dark spirits of the house’s inhabitants — then you’ll love Evans’ Corpus. 

It has the dark-house cat-and-mouse of a film like Bodies Bodies Bodies, with the isolation and psychosexual creepiness seen in Breeder. Corpus also fits well into the canon of from hell: Think the doomed dinner party of (2015) or a hastily planned weekend getaway you just know is a bad idea, à la . And despite feeling like a gothic tale in that sense, the film is rapid-fire where the classics were slow.