MotelX 2025 Review: BUZZHEART Makes Meeting The Parents Horrifying

After a striking opening scene, in which a young man and a young woman connect in a massage parlor after a clandestine handjob, and she invites him over to meet her parents immediately, the credits of Buzzheart start. They consist of real life, quite horrifying footage of behavioral science experiments on monkeys and pigeons, where the little monkeys especially seem frightened and sad. It sets the tone for the rest of Buzzheart, a film that deftly switches between slightly off-kilter romance and horror of a more psychological kind.

Director Dennis Illiadis is best known for his quite brutal Last House on the Left remake, but Buzzheart, while pulling no punches itself, has no gore on the brain. It plays more in the key of the dark off-kilter absurdist dissections of family life, like Alex van Warmerdam's work (both Borgman and The Last Days of Emma Blank come to mind), or fellow Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth. It is also definitely its own thing. Turns out that the two fresh lovers, Argyry and Mary, have to deal with meeting parents who are not all there. Mother, Sandra, is a former behavioral scientist, who can't quite leave her past experiments alone, and psychiatrist father Yorgos is a little more than protective of his daughter.

A lot of the fun in Buzzheart is seeing how much Argyry can be put through the wringer, and how Sandra and Yorgos keep upping the ante of what turns out to be an almost military-level cross-examination. Highlights are best kept to myself, as the surprise factor in this film is definitely part of the selling point, but watch out for a crazy version of karaoke. In the best moments Buzzheart really shines, never really giving you a clear vision of where it will lead, and deliberately so. Once the pieces start falling into place it is hard to not feel slightly underwhelmed, as it turns into a more traditional horror piece, with some very familiar dramatic beats. It would be nice to see a family-based horror film where the deep dark secret in the past is something less familiar.

Still, Buzzheart has a lot going for it. Especially because there seem to be no loftier goals to it than making a good time out of second-hand embarrassment. There is not much going on here in the way of 'elevated horror' (shudder), and no Ari Aster-esque therapy session for the whole theatre. Aside from some minor magical-realist symbolism, Buzzheart just wants to surprise you and unnerve you. A lot like meeting the in-laws for the first time, really...