Allure   Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Julia Sarah Stone and Denis O'Hare Distributor: Eureka Entertainment RRP: £9.99 EKA40447 5060000404470 Certificate: 18 Release Date: 09 July 2018

Laura Drake is a highly emotionally damaged woman, who tries to come to terms with her internal turmoil through violent sex. Working for her father as a cleaner she is sent to a new assignment. There she meets sixteen-year-old Eva who is struggling under a controlling mother. Laura convinces Eva to run away with her and live together. In their apartment the abused becomes the abuser...

Allure (2017. 1 hr, 44 min, 51 sec) is a psychological thriller directed by first time film makers, Carlos and Jason Sanchez.

Stories about abuse and especially about the abuse between a young woman and a teenager are never designed to be easy watches. The film starts in a dark place with Laura, nearly suffocating her most recent sexual encounter and the directors don’t really lift the tone for the rest of the film.

Central to whether you believe the situation is the pivotal suffocating performances by Evan Rachel Wood (Laura) and Julia Sarah Stone (Eva). Laura’s desires, sexual or otherwise are clearly rooted in terms of control and the film hints that this is because she had control taken away at a young age. When she finally gets Eva alone her behaviour becomes manipulative, Eva has swapped a controlling mother for someone who has their own control issues.

The film is at its best when the two leads are interacting, that said its very difficult to engage with either of them. Laura is unpleasantly explosive in her emotional life and its difficult to accept that Eva is so innocent that she cannot see that she is being trapped by this thirty-year-old woman.

Ultimately this is not an easy watch, not only the relationship, but also the level of verbal and at times physical abuse Laura heaps on Eva just makes you want to shout for Eva to get out. The film will certainly evoke a divisive reaction, but I’m not sure you could say that it was fun to watch. Though I did think that Woods and Stone were powerful in their roles.

The DVD comes with no extras apart for the trailer.

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Charles Packer