Netflix’s The Perfection is a nasty little film that has lofty aspirations. Part love story, part body horror, and part revenge tale, director Richard Shepard aims high with his twist-laden story, but is never fully able to rise above the trappings of B-movie camp. Elevated by some fantastically deranged performances from Allison Williams and Logan Browning, The Perfection is popcorn fare disguised as high-brow horror. Mild spoilers ahead...

With virtuoso cello prodigies, an ill-fated trip through rural China, and a bloody denouement of revenge and mutilation, Netflix’s new horror film The Perfection easily recalls the scintillating grotesqueries of filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, François Ozon, and - in director Richard Shepard’s own words - Park Chan-wook. Under a sheen of fancily chaptered intertitles, De Palma-esque split diopter shots, and gnarly body horror, The Perfection aims high and wide with its imagery and absolutely bonkers twists and turns, but never quite lands among the high-brow pantheon of films it’s inspired by - instead, the film revels in its B-movie charms and provocations…and that’s totally okay.

Centered around prodigal cello talent Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams, paradoxically leaning into as well as subverting her “damaged WASP” typecasting), The Perfection is a narrative that wears a variety of hats. Ten years after quitting the world of music to take care of her ailing mother, our wayward protagonist reconnects with the prestigious conservatory that she left behind. Nervously rehearsing a phone call with her old mentors, Anton (Steven Weber) and Paloma (Alaina Huffman), Charlotte is a bundle of nerves: “I know it’s been forever, but my mother finally passed away and I’m not needed here anymore. So, if it’s okay, I’d like to come and join you.” Winding up in Shanghai, she discovers that a new upstart, Lizzie (Logan Browning, Dear White People), has essentially taken her place as the school’s star. Charlotte then strikes up an unlikely friendship - and even unlikelier romance - with Lizzie. It’s here that The Perfection begins to flit about with its genres, turning on a dime from erotic thriller to insectoid horror to revenge tale - and sometimes, it works; other times, not so much.