Movie Review: Diane (2018)

Stage actress/singer Diane (Carlee Avers) is discovered in the back yard of hard luck disabled war vet Steve (Jason Alan Smith)…well, her semi-clothed body is anyway along with a bloody screwdriver. After an intense, and off-kilter, grilling by the local authorities, Steve is returned home where he becomes obsessed with Diane…so much so that he begins to hear her voice late at night and has strange fever dreams involving her (tinted a strange crimson hue, or taking place in nebulous white spaces)…while his days find him even more ostracized from his community than we was previously. Before long, Diane’s appearances become rather sinister, and find that things aren’t as they appear to be!
Boasting a unique and surreal aesthetic, Diane is definitely not your run of the mill police procedural/murder mystery. Every character is perfectly nuanced and acted (with Smith’s leading man performance a true standout…but Margaret Rose Champagne, Dick Boland, and Jim Thalman as the police assigned to his case are no slouches either), and the over-all vibe is so indefinably off-kilter that it’s impossible not to be wrapped up in the story and completely pick up what the flick is laying down…and that’s before the supernatural shit gets hot n’ heavy!
On the opposite end of things; if you like your narratives linear in nature, or don’t enjoy a slow burn type of picture, the Diane may not be your bag. In other words, it’s not a ghosts screamin’ in your face every other second type of fright flick, but what it does have is more than worth it for lover’s of bizarre cinema.
Strange, mysterious, slightly supernatural, and completely enthralling; Diane is a one of a kind picture and will instantly appeal to fans of David Lynch or those not wanting their hand held as they travel a film’s story. I say “see it” my creeps!