Horror Movie Review: The Benefactress (an Exposure of Cinematic Freedom) (2025)

What is horror? The defining aspect as you see it? Chances are, it’s actually quite a difficult question answer as the term is so fluid. How do you compare something like Halloween to The Exorcist, or Faces of Death to The Blair Witch Project? How do we lump Candyman, Frankenstein, Terrifier, and Final Destination into the same category? They are all considered horror, simply because they are designed to horrify. Even as modern audiences have become severely desensitised to things that horrify. I’d go into detail about reality being gruesome enough, but who needs that repeated!?

We are all desensitised to horror, like it or not, and that includes Hollywood. Nobody expects to be challenged anymore by cinema. Occasionally an independent filmmaker creates something that stands out, but something that challenges? That’s rare.

Guerrilla Metropolitana is a rare breed of filmmaker. Not just someone who enjoys challenging perceptions of filmmaking, but someone who thrives on it. The London based Italian independent filmmaker defines what it means to be an artist, and with that comes something that polarises. Love what he does, hate what he does, but you are guaranteed to feel something when you watch his work.

The latest of which is The Benefactress (an Exposure of Cinematic Freedom), where the director pushes boundaries to breaking point, and in doing so, creates something daring and potent.

Dariuss, Guerrilla’s debut film, was a cult hit and with that came a ton of attention, good and bad. Attention that came from influential backers who were more than happy to provide Guerrilla with the financial power he needed to make something special. Something uncompromising, something revolutionary, something provocative, and something unforgettable. This isn’t a film, it’s an experience.

We’re introduced to it by the character of Juicy X, who sets the tone with her monologue that is more akin to a hostage reading. She explains in a fourth wall breaking way just what we can expect but does so with some discomfort.

What does it all mean? Everything and nothing. This is an exposure of cinematic freedom, an experiment, and what follows is expressionism like you’ve never seen before. An incoherent explosion of violence and sex, delivered in meta fashion, and showcased with a mix of stylish and obnoxious arthouse visuals and sound. Be warned, there is no ‘story’, there are barely characters, and the line between reality and fiction is blurred to such a degree, it’s easy to forget just what you are watching.

I write reviews for horror films and have done so for many years. I grew up on the genre, watching gruesome events and shocking content at an age that would be considered inappropriate. I was a kid when this country (the UK) was gripped by moral panic around films, resulting in the video nasty list, and a few years ago, set out to watch and review every single one of them. I’ve seen A Serbian Tale, Salò, The Human Centipede films, and even the August Underground stuff, and came away unscathed to some degree.

I mention all of this because I was affected by The Benefactress and left with plenty to think about afterwards. The absurdity of the project and what Guerrilla Metropolitana accomplished with it left me wondering just how I could even write words about it. I was amazed by the lengths he went to shock, left agape by the sexual violence on show, stunned by the twisting of gender roles, and left feeling uncomfortable by the grotesque way all of this is displayed.

It’s completely unconventional, likely to polarise to an eye-watering extent, but it left an impression on me. When was the last time a horror (and it is a horror film) had such an effect on me? That is why I have come to respect Guerrilla Metropolitana and how he accomplished his goal here. The Benefactress (an Exposure of Cinematic Freedom) is not a film, so I won’t be giving it a final score as I normally would, instead I simply ask that you be daring enough to experience it yourself. That way you can make up your mind about it.