Strange Circus (5 Stars)

If you go into "Strange Circus" expecting a straightforward horror film, prepare to have your mind thoroughly scrambled. This is the kind of film that makes you stop asking what's happening and start wondering whether any of it is happening at all.

Directed by Sion Sono, "Strange Circus" blurs the line between memory, fantasy and reality until it completely disappears. Abuse, murder, fiction and trauma become so tangled together that every scene makes you question the last one. Are you watching the truth, a novel, or someone's desperate attempt to escape the truth? The film never gives you an easy answer.

That's what makes it so fascinating.

The dreamlike visuals, grotesque circus imagery and haunting performances create an atmosphere that's both beautiful and deeply unsettling. Every time you think you've worked the story out, Sono quietly suggests you've been fooled.

"Strange Circus" isn't interested in explaining itself. It wants you to leave with questions rather than answers. Days later, you'll probably still be wondering what was real... and whether that question was ever the right one to ask.

In a recent interview Sion Sono claims this is one of his favourite films. It was made in 2005, when he was still developing his style. His previous films, especially "Suicide Club", had established him as a creator of unsettling horror films. "Strange Circus" continues in this vein, but it adds eroticism to the mix in a way that disgusts more than arouses. It's the sort of film that many people will turn off within the first half hour.

At the time Sono made the film he was dating a woman who owned a shop that sold BDSM outfits. Most of the non-speaking extras are the shop's customers, giving the film a bizarre realism.