the media that introduced myself & most to the 35mm dreamscape of anna biller was, of course, the love witch. anna biller's 2016 spellbinding homage to the pulp fiction paperbacks and technicolour memories of yesteryear is perverse yet sincere, feminine yet violent.

elaine parks (samantha robinson, in a seductive breakthrough performance) is a charming young woman who moves to a small californian town after the recent murder of her husband. changed after his traumatic death, she resolves to witchcraft to fill a hole in her heart, entrapping men along her path. death, sex, and wiccan ritualism ensue, as anna biller spins a witty -- but veritic -- story on the price of validation through carnal pleasures. there's nothing that truly has the substance that this film possesses.

entrancingly self-possessed, the love witch announces itself with rare authority and conviction — the movie isn’t a minute old before its filled you with the first blush of a contact high from some seriously potent hallucinogens. biller is a detail-driven visual fetishist whose previous work (including 2007’s viva) has hinted at her gift for seducing genuine substance from an overflowing cauldron of style, but her new film is completely transportive right off the hop. working alongside cinematographer david m. mullen to resurrect the diffuse and gauzy look of vaguely sinister fare like jacques demy’s peau d'âne, biller melds old techniques with a modern perspective, conjuring a world that feels lost in time and completely true to itself.

likely our decade's most exciting and unexpected horror film -- until biller's new movie bluebeard is released.