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“Nothing attracts attention like a little red dress.”–Laura Bush
DIRECTED BY: Peter Strickland
FEATURING: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Fatma Mohamed, Leo Bill, Hayley Squires, Julian Barratt, Steve Oram, Richard Bremmer, Jaygann Ayeh, Gwendoline Christie
PLOT: Sheila, a divorced bank teller, gets ready for her first newly single dating experience by visiting the local department store and splurging on a red dress; a series of unusual, life-threatening occurrences ensue, all seemingly related to the dress. While attempting to return the outfit to the store, she learns that the model who wore the dress for a promotional catalogue was later killed in a traffic accident. Later, the frock finds its way to meek appliance repairman Reg and then his assertive fiancée Babs, both of whom have strange encounters with a mysterious sales clerk and a pair of inappropriately nosy bank managers.
BACKGROUND:
- In Fabric was Strickland’s fourth narrative feature. We have previously reviewed two of those, The Duke of Burgundy and Berberian Sound Studio, as well as the follow-up, Flux Gourmet. Mohamed has appeared in all of his movies.
- An early draft of the script featured six people receiving the fateful dress and facing the consequences. Strickland realized this would require a six-hour film to give each character their due. In order to secure studio support, he trimmed the screenplay accordingly.
- The setting of Thames-Valley-upon-Thames is modeled after Strickland’s hometown of Reading. The fictional Dentley and Soper’s department store was inspired by Jacksons, a Reading retail mainstay for more than 130 years until it closed in 2013.
- Winner of the 2019 Méliès d’Or, awarded for outstanding achievement in European science fiction, fantasy, and horror films.
INDELIBLE IMAGE: Strickland successfully dodges the silliness factor associated with trying to showcase a demon-possessed piece of clothing. As it flutters in the rafters, creeps under doors, and swirls about in erotic delight, the dress reads as dramatic rather than laughable. But when it comes to outrageousness, the garment takes a back seat to the craziness going on at the store that sold it. After the doors close for the evening, the saleswomen begin the delicate process of bringing the mannequins to the back of the house, removing the clothes, and gently bathing the dummies with sponges and tongues. The intensity ramps up as the fake human is revealed to have a very realistic pubic mound, and eventually it begins to menstruate. It’s a sight that moves the proprietor to indulge in full self-gratification. One does wonder what goes on in the store’s sporting goods department.
TWO WEIRD THINGS: Prepping the mannequin; the erotic power of washing machine maintenance
WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: We are always up for a movie about a homicidal haunted object. A haunted house, a haunted bed, even a haunted tire have all earned a spot in our august halls. (Haunted bulldozers and motorcycles, not so much.) So a haunted dress is totally welcome to join the party, but it has to bring something extra. In Fabric delivers two such elements. One is the bizarrely creepy department store that is a portal to hell, watching over its customers with an attitude that is both patronizing and carnivorous. The other is an earnest sympathy toward its characters, neither of whom have class privilege or easy socialization, and who turn to retail to give them a lift. In Fabric knows that these are decent folks looking for a break, and turns their exploitation by retail and advertising into a horror show.
Original trailer for In Fabric
COMMENTS: Sheila could use a win. Her ex-husband has taken up with a new girl, dashing hopes of reconciliation. Her son takes advantage of her kindness while lavishing his attention on his Amazonian girlfriend. Her bosses at the bank have an unending capacity for finding fault. (Her handshakes are lacking in meaning, they tell her, while her waves of greeting are insubordinate.) And the fellow she meets through the personals is rude and dismissive. (He carelessly proffers a crumpled rose from his briefcase as a cursory nod to dating convention.) So it’s a leap of faith to try on the red dress, for Sheila to tell herself that one little indulgence will actually be good for her self-esteem. After all, the adverts are always telling us that this product or that one will change our lives. Maybe this time around, it really will. Right?
The horror genre frequently uses a character’s untimely demise as punishment, a vindictive comeuppance for transgressions against decency and morality. Viewed in that light, the fate that befalls all who come into the orbit of this devilish dress seems cruel, even capricious. What did they do to earn such cosmic scorn? That actually seems to be Strickland’s point. They’re victims of a system that preys upon their insecurities. The capitalist system demands their metaphorical blood (the store’s catalog identifies the dress color as “artery red”), so it’s only a matter of time when it pivots to the real thing. You think it’s unfair that honest, working-class folks are penalized by predatory consumerism, intrusive employers, and unrealistic standards for happiness? So does In Fabric.
But it’s okay if you don’t buy in to the didactic notion that the villain here is capitalism. The dress and the store that sold it are plenty demonic on their own. Strickland’s film is set in 1993, but the workings of the store show it to be trapped in 1948, with transactions conducted in cash and change delivered by pneumatic tube. The sales agents are a coven of prim Victorian headmistresses who welcome customers into the store with an elaborate display of ritual and penitent choreography. Mohamed’s vampiric saleswoman, Miss Luckmoore, looms over her clients like a hungry vulture, oppressing them with a combination of haughty superiority, invasive close-talking, and hilarious verbosity. Why ask if a customer enjoyed their purchase when she might alternatively ask, “Did the transaction validate your paradigm of consumerism?” When she’s not taking the dumbwaiter down to the subterranean chamber where she seems to live, she’s whispering sweet nothings into the ears of customers in an effort to make them buy and buy some more.
Jean-Baptiste turns out to be a perfect target for Miss Luckmoore’s poison pitch. A regular in Mike Leigh’s repertory company, she brings some of that raw exhaustion into Strickland’s stylized universe. In the face of petty complaints from her bosses, the wickedness of her son’s girlfriend (a hilariously petty Christie), and the increasingly violent assaults by a garment that does not appreciate being treated so cavalierly, she keeps her upper lip stiff, resolute in her certainty that she will finally get her due.
It’s not really a surprise that she’s wrong about that. The real surprise is that In Fabric turns out to be a covert anthology film, and that Jean-Baptiste delivers such a strong, rooted performance that her absence is palpable in the second half as the dress makes its way to a new owner. As a shoulder-shrugging punching bag for the universe, mousy Reg is necessarily less relatable than Shelia. His future father-in-law throws him a singularly awful bachelor party in which the guys force him to wear the malevolent frock. He just takes it. His boss despises him, never speaking a word, and finally eating Reg’s ID card as a kind of performance review. And there’s Babs, the woman who seems to walk all over him, but we learn does so because he’s incapable of getting off the floor. She has her own body issues, which she counters by taking a hard line with everyone she meets. (Their tale feels like two of the original storylines combined into one. It’s easy to imagine Strickland’s original vision coming to fruition as an offbeat horror series on a streaming service, with the dress tormenting a new victim each episode.) They don’t seem like a natural couple, but they at least feel lucky to have each other. Heck, if it weren’t for Reg’s unusual ability to induce paroxysms of erotic pleasure simply by describing a washing machine repair job, he wouldn’t have much going for him at all.
Like Sheila, Reg and Babs haven’t “earned” their fate, but it finds them just the same, reinforcing the idea that the dress is chaotic evil, indifferent to the nature of its targets. Did you wear the dress? That’s all that matters. You’ll pay in blood. Indeed, the final shot suggests that the victims of the dress are being collected, becoming eternal employees in the devil’s sweatshop. Something to remember when you’re indulging in fast fashion or ignoring the washing instructions on the label: you may not care about the clothes, but the clothes certainly don’t care about you.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
OFFICIAL SITE:
In Fabric | A24 – The trailer, a description, and a hi-res digital poster
IMDB LINK: In Fabric (2018)
OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST:
Vulture – Peter Strickland Explains 2019’s Weirdest Movie, In Fabric – The writer-director provides some background on the story, and also explains what the MPAA forced him to cut to get an R rating in the U.S.
Whitlock & Pope – “I’m putting my personal life on screen now” – Peter Strickland’s IN FABRIC – An insightful interview with Strickland that delves into the personal inspirations and experiences underlying the story, conducted by an interrogator who hails from the same town
Dazed – How In Fabric’s violently murderous little red dress was brought to life – Costume designer Jo Thompson describes the evolution of the red dress and other design choices for the film
Senses of Cinema – Fashioning Film’s Fabric: Wearing the Materiality of Peter Strickland’s In Fabric – David Evan Richard’s insightful essay discusses the interpretation of seemingly nonsensical narratives
Taliesin Meets the Vampires – Use of Tropes: In Fabric – The author considers the film’s specific use of vampire iconography and tropes
CAPSULE: IN FABRIC (2018) – Giles Edwards’ original review for this site
HOME VIDEO INFO:Though In Fabric did well with critics, it wasn’t a big moneymaker for distributor A24. Therefore, they outsourced the Blu-ray (buy) to Lionsgate, who are known for putting out bare-bones editions. It’s unlikely to validate your paradigm of consumerism, but its pretty much your only option if you’re limited to a North American Blu-ray player (note that Lionsgate’s BD-R 25 discs will not play in an X-box). The European edition from Curzon Artificial Eye (buy) contains a Strickland commentary and deleted scenes. DVDs are also available from Curzon (buy), but we found no North American DVD release.
At the time of this writing, In Fabric was available on free (ad-supported) streaming sites like Tubi. You could also rent or buy it digitally (buy or rent) for an ad-free streaming experience.
