An act of nearly overwhelming self-congratulation, Jean-Claude Brisseau’s Exterminating Angels takes a premise more suited for a simple straight-to-DVD exploitationer and tries to ramp it up into an examination of the intersections of transgressive desire and artistic integrity. Oh, and there are angels, too–meddling, attractive, female angels who like to hang about invisibly and whisper dark suggestions into people’s ears. It’s likely Brisseau thought the angels added a layer of mystical power to his story, helping to explain the primal urges exhibited by some of the characters. But given the grandiosely silly direction this film takes, the result is more like Wings of Desire directed by Zalman King.

My full review ran in Film Journal International. Link.