UNDERCOVER MISTRESS

Inside a room where a photographic exhibition is set up, a man with an elegant and sinister appearance spots a beautiful girl and tries to flirt with her with his gaze. The advances, however, become increasingly insistent to the point that the young woman gets scared and runs out into the street, thus starting a lively chase. When the handsome man finally manages to reach his prey, the roles reverse, and the protagonist's evening takes a completely different turn from what he expected. How many times do we read in the newspapers or hear on TV about men who, inside a venue, nightclub, or pub, harass beautiful girls and force them to run away and ask for help? Unfortunately, many. It is precisely from this sad slice of our reality that the young director Giulio Ciancamerla, already active in the sector for several years as an assistant director and documentary author, draws inspiration for this new short film titled "Undercover Mistress". A story, therefore, of ordinary madness in which the choice not to give names to the protagonists and a precise geographical connotation are not coincidental, just to reinforce the idea of an event that repeats frequently and in many different places. But this is not Ciancamerla's only good intuition, as the story, written by the director himself and producer Lucio Massa, despite its short duration, enjoys surprising the viewer through the role reversal mentioned above and a couple of significant plot twists. The real highlight is represented by the violence scenes, in which David Bracci's excellent makeup stands out, which are never an end in themselves and are always in line with the film's narrative development. In short, splatter lovers are satisfied, but it is used intelligently so as not to disgust and alienate the rest of the audience. The psychedelic and unsettling music by irs – Negativeself – A Happy Death is also very effective, as are the performances of the excellent protagonists Leonardo Pace, Stefania Visconti, and Asia Liguori, all well immersed in the rotten and sick atmosphere of the short film. Among some cinematic references to our classic horror cinema, that of "Profondo Rosso" immediately stands out, and a touch of curiosity to know how the story would have been told with more minutes available, "Undercover Mistress" proves to be a more than successful operation and not just linked to genre cinema as a mere entertainment tool.