In Fabric is a haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences..

Sheila (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) is a modest, recent divorcee who works as a bank teller by day and mother to her teen son Vince (Jaygann Ayeh) at night. This rather staid existence is upended when Sheila procures a vibrant, red dress on sale, triggering a rash of surreal and dangerous events. The dress is cursed. Yes, the dress is cursed. It is with this extraordinary conceit that the new film IN FABRIC weaves an intoxicatingly stylized yarn, resulting in one of the most daring and wonderful films of the year.

Writer-director Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgandy, Berberian Sound Studio) is back with a new film that might be his best yet. Dancing in the realm of the subconscious, IN FABRIC  tells the story of a woman, lured into a department store in hopes of finding something fetching to wear on a date. Approached by sales associate Jill (Sidse Babett Knudsen), who is dressed head to toe in a maudlin black gown, Sheila is convinced to leave the store with a ruby-red silk and chiffon number.

It is only after purchasing the dress that odd things begin happening. First, a strange rash appears on her body. Next, when laundering her dress, the washing machine literally shakes itself to pieces. Suspicious, Sheila begins to be more than a little concerned as her life begins to spiral. Strickland creates a surreal nightmare world that feels at once sleepy and strangely on edge. Populating the film with abstract asides that enforce the tone we believe that there could be danger in a dress.

Adopting a glossy, hyper-saturated and high contrast tone of a department store catalog, Production Designer Paki Smith and Art Director Bobbie Cousins slather the screen in rich reds, greens, and yellows. There is also glorious work by Cinematographer Ari Wegner who maintains a very analog look to every moment on screen while bumping the colors when needed. We should also mention the prickly, synth score by Cavern Of Anti-Matter that recals the made for TV movies of the 70’s with a soundscape of electronic discord and aural jump scares.

This is a mood piece that plays with the dreams and desires of things sentient and inanimate that linger just below the surface. In the hands of another auteur, this might have failed miserably. Yet Strickland guides IN FABRIC forcefully and indulges in a vision that entices the audience deeper into the madness.

Simply put, IN FABRIC is one of the best horror films of the year because of its vision, its absurdity, and because it taps into a realm that few films get right. This is nightmare fuel that will amuse as much as it will disturb. You will believe a dress can fly. For that matter, you will believe a dress can also cause havoc in several people’s lives because you will want to.