Mara review – boilerplate scares in don'tsleep horror
Some pretty moderate semi-scariness is on offer here, with a generic horror starring Olga Kurylenko. She is Kate, a US police psychologist called in to help with the bizarre case of a woman who has allegedly killed her husband during a psychotic episode – to the horror of her young daughter, who discovered the crime. But might there be supernatural forces at work? Well, the cops say there are no other suspects, and Kate suppresses whatever scruples she has and signs off on committing the woman to psychiatric imprisonment, a miscalculation that causes a fateful spasm of guilt in her heart.
Kate is briefly seduced by the siren song of rational explanation and she understands that conventional science has long since demystified the nature of sleep paralysis, during which hallucinations of possession can occur. But this is the real ghostly thing, a genuine demonic incursion to which she is alerted by a deranged-looking man, Dougie (Craig Conway) who knows that the satanic culprit is a female wraith called Mara, summoned from the netherworld by a seismic event of guilt or injustice – and she attacks when you’re sleeping. The plot meanders around the houses, delivering boilerplate scares with various borrowings from Nightmare on Elm Street and Paranormal Activity, and there are one or two strong moments: a gruesome scene when a seriously sleep-deprived Dougie has to take drastic action to stop his eyes from closing and also when Kate is being pursued down a brightly lit, apparently empty corridor. But really this is by-the-numbers stuff.
Mara is available on to stream on Amazon from 14 August
me, is Berghain.”
Curators said the exhibition would focus on “the studio as a space for contemplation and production”. While Berlin claims to be home to the highest density of studios and artists’ workshops in Europe, many artists have struggled to find outlets for their work as exhibitions and art fairs have been cancelled or postponed.
The collaboration between the nightclub and the art world is the latest creative attempt to preserve the infrastructure of Berlin’s nightlife during the pandemic. Some Berlin night-time venues with outdoor spaces, such as Klunkerkranich in Neukölln and :// about blank in Friedrichshain, have temporarily converted into beer gardens selling drinks and pizzas. Other clubs have held quiz nights or flea markets.
But while Berlin’s senate has paid out emergency funds of around €81,000 to a number of venues, organisers say they will struggle to keep paying their employees via the government’s part-time furlough scheme for much longer.
Berghain, once dubbed the “Berlin
Philharmonic of electronic music”, shut its doors to protect visitors from the virus on 11 March, before authorities began enforcing closures by law. DJs have been playing sets in the adjacent beer garden since the start of August.