''Allure'' is a 2017 Canadian

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

written and directed by Carlos and Jason Sanchez in their feature film debut. It stars

Evan Rachel Wood Evan Rachel Wood (born September 7, 1987) is an American actress. She is the recipient of a Critics' Choice Television Award as well as nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. She began acting in the 1990s, a ...

Julia Sarah Stone Julia Sarah Stone (born November 24, 1997) is a Canadian actress. She began studying theater at the age of six, and appeared in a number of school plays over the following years. After booking a small part in an independent short film in 2009, sh ...

, and

Denis O'Hare Denis Patrick Seamus O'Hare (born January 17, 1962) is an American actor noted for his award-winning performances in the plays '' Take Me Out'' and '' Sweet Charity'', as well as portraying vampire king Russell Edgington on the HBO fantasy serie ...

. It originally premiered under the title ''A Worthy Companion'' at the

2017 Toronto International Film Festival The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from September 7 to 17, 2017. There were fourteen programs, with the Vanguard and City to City programs both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down by ...

. In December, TIFF included the film on its annual

Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema". ''Welland Tribune'', November 23, ...

list of the ten best Canadian films.

Plot

Laura Drake (

) is an emotionally disturbed young woman who works as a house-cleaner for her father's company in an urban environment. One day, Laura meets an unhappy teenager named Eva (

) while on the job. The pair form an unexpected connection, and Laura eventually convinces Eva to leave her oppressive mother and move in with her. Though the relationship initially works, Laura's anxiety soon makes her abusive and controlling, creating an unstable bond between the two women.

Cast

Reception

In November 2016, ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' announced that Carlos and Jason Sanchez had cast

in the film, opposite

. The film would follow an emotionally troubled 30-year-old woman named Laura who falls in love with Stone's teenage character Eva, convincing Eva to live with her. The narrative would explore mental trauma, manipulation of a minor, and explicit sexual themes. An early review from the Toronto International Film Festival called the tale "a psychological thriller that focuses on a disturbing and obsessive relationship." Stone labeled it a dark but necessary story, and revealed that she'd enjoyed working with Wood. "This is an incredible, intense, important story and I'm lucky to have been part of telling it," she said. ''Allure'' marked the third in a series of Stone's films (following ''Wet Bum'' and ''Weirdos'') to premiere at a Toronto International Film Festival. On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 46% based on 28 reviews, and an average rating of 5.88/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Allure'' has visual style and an intriguing Evan Rachel Wood on its side, but a clumsily told story leaves this sexually charged thriller less than the sum of its parts." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 54 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". The Sanchez brothers received a nomination for the

Directors Guild of Canada The Directors Guild of Canada (DGC; ) is a Canadian labour union representing more than 5,500 professionals from 48 different occupations in the Canadian film and television industry. Founded in 1962, the DGC represents directors, editors, assist ...

DGC Discovery Award DGC can refer to: Businesses and organizations * Darlton Gliding Club, Nottinghamshire, England * Daybreak Game Company, an American video game developer * Delhi Golf Club, Delhi, India * Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chronometrie, a German organiz ...

.Barry Hertz
"Directors Guild of Canada reveals long list for Discovery Award"
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', September 5, 2017.

References

External links

* 2017 films 2017 directorial debut films 2017 independent films 2017 LGBTQ-related films 2017 thriller films Canadian independent films Canadian LGBTQ-related films Canadian thriller films English-language Canadian films Films shot in Montreal Lesbian-related films 2010s English-language films 2010s Canadian films English-language independent films Films scored by Olivier Alary English-language thriller films LGBTQ-related thriller films {{2010s-thriller-film-stub