Screening at The Overlook Film Festival, Two Pigeons was an uncomfortable yet highly entertaining horror comedy about the ultimate invasion of privacy
I honestly can’t think of anything more awful than someone sneaking around my house when I’m not there — worse still, someone who wished me harm. There are much more terrible things that can happen to a person, yet the violation of your personal space being invaded is at the top of most people’s list of worst case scenarios.
The film Two Pigeons presents the audience with quite a clear picture of this unpleasant subject.
Enter Orlan, played by the gauntly thin Spanish actor Javier Botet. We’ve all “seen” Botet before, but not as himself. Horror audiences have been terrified by him in movies like Mama, Crimson Peak and Conjuring 2, where he played monstrous and very thin characters, even under heavy prosthetics. With makeup removed, he gives us a brave and disturbing performance in this horror comedy. Botet makes the audience squirm as he sneaks around, literally inside another person’s life.
Two Pigeons is not as much of a comedy as it is a creepy dark thriller. The film played this weekend at The Overlook Film Festival, and I found myself crying out “No, don’t do that, eewww” many times, while the character Orlan (Botet) carries out his insidious plan against Hussein played by Mim Shaikh. We find out soon that we don’t really like Hussein, but that doesn’t make what happens on screen any less disgusting.
If you can get through this film without gagging, you will be rewarded with the answer to the puzzle…the “why is this happening?”
I admit it felt a bit like slowing down to see a car wreck; wrong, but you can’t look away. I stopped, I looked, and I enjoyed the ride. (I laugh uncomfortably!)
When an unsympathetic character get what he deserves, it doesn’t seem so bad, but TWO PIGEONS really hits every level of behaviors that can make a horror, or any audience, feel sick — without any blood or gore. Orlan is truly a monster, but one we ultimately feel sorry for. This film by writer/director Dominic Bridges could be a bit shorter, so as not to drag the tension on so much, but maybe that’s why it worked for me; that edge of my seat tension, waiting to see what horrid thing would happen next.
Look for Botet to appear as a monster again soon in the upcoming flicks, Alien: Covenant, The Mummy and It. I am sure you will recognize him from now on and be afraid. Oh, and look closely at your toothbrush before you use it again.
Two Pigeons has no release date at this time, while it continues through the film festival circuit.
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