Superstition (2001)
7/10
Surreal fantasy thriller about supernatural power
27 September 2002
This movie is based on a true story: In 1979 a British au-pair girl was working for an Italian family on the island of Elba and accused of firestarting and witchcraft after a few fatal incidents and a burnt-down house - the family told the judge she has caused the fires by "supernatural powers". She was accused guilty in 1982 but returned to England.

The film shows basically the same plot with stunning Sienna Guillory as the au-pair girl Julie with supernatural powers. Mark Strong plays her lawyer Antonio who has to fight mainly against prejudices and the fundamental superstition of the people and the media. Director Kenneth Hope hasn't produced a copy of the doomy "Exorcist" and "Omen" horror movies, but rather a silent psycho drama with great actings by Guillory, Strong, Charlotte Rampling, Alice Kringe and David Warner. There is no happy end, a thrilling court room drama sequence and there are also some very surreal and disturbing dream sequences.

If you relate "Superstition" to the horror movie genre, it's one of the best contemporary European genre productions apart from the boring popcorn horror movie remakes and teenie slasher trash of the current Hollywood productions.
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