Netflix Horror Comedy Turns Art Into Murder

Velvet Buzzsaw was written and directed by Dan Gilroy, who previously helmed such excellent movies as 2014’s Nightcrawler and 2017’s Roman J. Israel, Esq. Gilroy first came up with the idea for the film after spending over a year and a half working with Warner Brothers to develop a Superman movie which never ultimately materialized.

The deterioration of his superhero film, as well as his wasted time and effort, led Gilroy into a deep frustration, ultimately inspiring this chilling takedown of the uptight art industry. In fact, some scenes from Velvet Buzzsaw, (those without any dismembered corpses) were inspired by moments from Dan Gilroy’s actual life.

The film touts leading performances from a wide array of A-list performers, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, Daveed Diggs, Tom Sturridge, John Malkovich, and The Many Saints of Newark‘s Billy Magnussen. Gyllenhaal worked closely with Dan Gilroy to develop most of his character’s quirks and mannerisms for the film, with Gilroy remarking in interviews that the actor had a particularly hands-on behind-the-scenes role.

The narrative of Velvet Buzzsaw centers on art critic Morf Vandewalt, as he and a few of his pals in the art underworld take an acute interest in the posthumous work of an undiscovered artist who recently died.

Along with his cohorts Josephine and Rhodora, Morf digs into the personal background of this artist, whose name is Vetril Dease, and learns that he was once committed to a psychiatric hospital after murdering his own abusive father. While inside, Dease is said to have received disturbing experiments by the hospital staff, using him as a guinea pig for their untested human trials.

As Velvet Buzzsaw continues, Dease’s work seems to be cursed, as transport trucks loaded with his paintings mysteriously catch fire, gallery patrons begin to hallucinate, and the friendships of the art critics involved in bringing his work to life start falling apart.

I won’t get into too much detail about the final act of Velvet Buzzsaw, though suffice is to say, this film is completely off-the-walls. The violence is nearly cartoonish at times, and some of the artsy set-pieces will make you terrified to step foot in a museum.

The film currently touts a 61 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, though I personally think that it’s criminally underrated.

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After premiering at Sundance Film Festival in 2019, Velvet Buzzsaw was released and distributed within the United States exclusively by Netflix, where it can still be streamed today. Whether you’re a fan of horror slashers, deep dives into art history, or some good old fashioned movie violence, this film has everything you need.