"You said, 'don't stop'."

I struggle to create the words to describe the experience of Violation. Visceral, real, sincere, canorous, upsetting, necessary, raw, and true just don't seem to do it justice. This is one not to be missed, or taken lightly.

What does it take for those closest to us to believe that those closest to them could do something unspeakable? What does it mean when life carries on as though your tragedy, your struggle, your pain, and your bravery in speaking out... simply don't matter? What do you do then? What can you do? What will you do?

Violation is the directorial debut of writer/director/star Madeleine Sims and co-writer/director Dusty Mancinelli. This deeply disturbing, cathartic, and grounded piece of cinematic human experience is unlike anything I've ever seen. The closest I can get is a very light comparison between a horribly necessary mix of 2020's sleeper thriller Hunter Hunter and the revenge empowerment of Promising Young Woman but... that doesn't quite get the point across.

From it's unsettling beautiful score that seems to resonate deep within and chill your bones as though they'd been peeled raw, to its strange and evocative camera work that makes you see the world as though you'd never lived in it -- like the world stopped turning and nobody else seemed to notice -- Violation is as close to a debut masterpiece as I think the universe allows you to get.

This is hardly a "film" as we've come to know them, and I think some audiences will pass it off because it's "boring" or "unbelievable". The depravity in the possibility of those statements is upsetting and shocking to me given the very real and very current [and very constant] way the events of the film play out in the real world. Sans, of course, the obviously fantastical bits. I think the utter "realness" of the film will turn some away out of disinterest and some out of trauma induced shock at the subtle and true depiction of its events. [Again, minus the parts that are obviously not what I’m talking about.]

Watch this one alone. Watch it with headphones on and your cellphone off. Watch it in the dark, and watch it when you can sit, and focus, and absorb, and experience all that it has to offer. Violation" is a film more people need to see, and less people need to experience outside the world of dark celluloid monsters.

"...don't...stop..."