Alleluia is a foreign film from Belgium, directed by Fabrice du Welz, about a dark love story inspired by the “Lonely Hearts Killers.”
For anyone unfamiliar with them, the “Lonely Hearts Killers” were an American serial killer couple from the late ‘40s. They were suspected to have up to 17 victims. The killers met their unsuspecting victims through lonely hearts ads, which were personal ads equivalent to what we would consider online dating today.
Alleluia is a film that is not for the faint of heart. It is not a horror film filled with cheap scares but, instead, it captures how one slowly loses their mind. Du Welz’s directing is impressive and the detached tone throughout the film was enhanced through the unhinged performances by Lola Dueñas and Laurent Lucas.
The film is a harsh, bleak mood piece. Alleluia is a horror film for those who like to be haunted by grim, unsettling, and depressing characters. In the first scene, we are introduced to Dueñas’ character, Gloria. While working in the morgue, Gloria is washing a dead, naked man’s genitalia with vacant fascination. The moment feels unnatural because of the disconnection that Gloria has with the world. Gloria is a single mother who doesn’t get out that much. Her friend persuades her to go out with a man one night whom they saw on an online dating site.
The audience is then introduced to Lucas’ character, Michel. While preparing for his date with Gloria, Michel rehearses his lines in front of a mirror, which we would all think is pretty normal, until he starts to perform a creepy ritual with a photo of her in hopes that he will gain sexual control over her.
After their dinner date, Gloria falls hard for Michel. One can tell that she is hooked from the hungering, doe-eyed leer that Dueñas has on her face in every scene during the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Soon afterward, Gloria uncovers that Michel secretly seduces lonely women and takes their money. At first, she is upset and goes to confront him, but when she does Michel gets an overwhelming headache that gains Gloria’s full attentiveness. At that moment, Gloria becomes an unhinged, erratic woman. She enthusiastically offers to help steal from helpless women. Gloria is completely under Michel’s control and she follows him so blindly that she even leaves her daughter alone with a friend while she goes off with him for months.
Alleluia is filmed in such a way as to make the viewer feel uneasy at all times with its claustrophobic close-ups and unnerving sound design. There is a scene in which Gloria kills for the first time and has the body laid out on a kitchen table. Music starts to play, and she is just standing there looking at the camera. When the lyrics start, her mouth moves to the words being sung and, once the lyrics are done, she starts sawing off a limb.
In real life, the “Lonely Hearts Killers” were caught and arrested after a double murder of a mother and her two-year-old child. They were both sentenced to death soon after. The film ends on a bittersweet note. Unlike the original story, Gloria makes Michel kill the last victim in Alleluia and then goes after the child, but Michel lets the child go free. Gloria phones her daughter whom she left at the start of the film and realizes how much she misses her. Their conversation is the last scene of Alleluia.
Overall, the movie is well done but hard to sit through. Du Welz’s directing tells the unpleasant tale of the “Lonely Heart Killers” in the dark and bleak way it should be.
