Direction: Jonathan Cuatras
Country: USA
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell it To, the remarkable debut feature from Colombian-American Jonathan Cuartas, is an indie family horror-drama piece built at the crossroads of the disturbing stillness of Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and the urban, gothic tones of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive. It stars Patrick Fugit (who also produces), Ingrid Sophie Schram, and Owen Campbell as three siblings who are forced to live according to a dark secret that must be kept in the family.
Dwight (Fugit) and Jessie (Schram) make enormous sacrifices in their lives - including killing people who won’t be missed - to keep their chronically sick younger brother, Thomas (Campbell), alive. The latter is a fragile, dependent vampire that feeds on blood and needs to be kept at home at all the times, away from the sunlight. However, he often implores to get out and claims he needs friends. On the other side, Dwight dreams of leaving the town and put an end to the nightmare, whereas the remorseless Jessie commands the gruesome operations with an iron fist.
This bleak, vicious tale is endued with compelling performances, a noteworthy cinematography by the director's brother Michael Cuartas, an ominously droning score by Andrew Rease Shaw, and a great soundtrack that includes Helene Smith’s I Am Controlled By Your Love, the R&B tune that inspired the title of the film and earns a bitter meaning in the context it plays.
This is the type of vampire flick that works more at the psychological level and doesn’t need to show any fang to involve us in its bizarre, chilly atmosphere.
