GRIMM AND PROPER
GRETA Neil Jordan returns with a dark fairytale, and a never-nuttier Isabelle Huppert…
I Monsters come in all shapes and sizes – a fact few know better than Neil Jordan, who’s tackled werewolves (The Company Of Wolves), vampires (Byzantium), and, er, the British (Michael Collins). But in his latest, Greta, the monster is a 5ft widow with a lost handbag. “There’s a lot of really great horror movies at the moment,” Jordan tells Teasers. “But they all have some supernatural element to them. The fact that the demon here is a sweet, middle-aged lady is a scarier thought.”
Chloë Grace Moretz stars as Frances, a naïve young waitress still dealing with her mother’s death. After finding a handbag on the subway, she takes it upon herself to return the lost property to its owner, Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert). But what quickly becomes a friendship soon turns sinister when Frances makes a disturbing discovery…
A B-movie throwback to Misery, Repulsion and Fatal Attraction, Greta touches upon weighty ideas (loneliness in cities, the danger of stalkers), but is primarily a vehicle for Isabelle Huppert’s most unhinged performance yet. “I can’t imagine anyone else who would take this character and make it such grotesque
fun,” Jordan laughs. “The more the absurd comedy of it increased, the more terrifying it became.”
Jordan has form with fairytales, having previously helmed his dark take on Little Red Riding Hood, and Greta is loosely indebted to Hansel And Gretel, with Huppert’s schemer a kind of urban witch who lures young innocents to their doom. “Her roots are revealed to be some deep, dark European woods,” Jordan teases. “Which, to me, was a lovely set of associations with Grimm fairytales. And if I get a hint of those associations, I tend to push them as far as I possibly can!”
But though she may do dreadful things, Jordan was careful that Greta’s actions remained relatable, no matter how deranged. “I can understand every single thing she does,” Jordan explains. “Obviously, the levels of pathology we get to are just pure insanity. But I hope the audience can understand how one gets to those points.”
While Jordan has been absent from the (big) screen since 2012’s Byzantium, he’s helped create two successful TV series (The Borgias and Riviera) and written books. But now he’s back on the horror wagon, would he ever consider revisiting the supernatural? “I’m a bit tired of it,” he admits. “It’s hard to make people feel truly uneasy with characters you know can’t die. They don’t reach real levels of human terror, like this.”
ETA | 19 APRIL / GRETA OPENS NEXT MONTH.