YMMV / Velvet Buzzsaw

• Alternative Character Interpretation: We never really get to know Vetril Dease before his death, so what kind of person he was and what level of control he has over his Anomalous Art is left purely for speculation.
  • He was institutionalized for torturing his father to death, but he was supposedly an abusive individual who's cruelty is presented as a recurring theme in his paintings. Part of the plot mentions he had no friends or family to claim his property, but his paintings, photographs and footage show that he had siblings. In researching Dease's background, Morf discovers his mother and sister died in a house fire, which begs the question - what it just an accident, did his father kill them and that was The Last Straw, or did Vetril, in his madness, kill them all himself?
  • Close analysis shows that he used human blood for his red and black pigments, but the gallery archivist and brief clips imply that he only used his own. Did he just use his own blood (like actual artists have done)? It is confirmed that he killed his father and implied that he killed an abusive boss, so did he use any of their blood in his paintings? He has hundreds of paintings of various sizes, so if he didn't just use his own blood, how many lives that we don't now about did he take to make his paintings?
  • While Bryson and Jon catch brief glimpses of him (through a rearview mirror and a film-reel respectively) before the curse kills them, but he had various self-portraits that these could be depictions of instead. Since he was trying to destroy his paintings before his death, can we really believe that his ghost is possessing the paintings and this is giving it their power, or could those just be the part of him he put into the paintings as he made them?
  • And finally, he was the one who made hundreds of cursed paintings, but he also tried destroying them before he died and wanted them destroyed in his will. Did he purposefully create them with supernatural properties and regret it in the end, or was he just making paintings and, in his methods, accidentally create Artifacts of Doom?
  • There is also the motive of the art itself. Is it simply targeting those who seek to profit it? Is it trying to maximise its success and kills those trying to sabotage it? Or is it trying to destroy itself?
• Anvilicious: To say this movie goes on and on and on and on about how art should be about the passion instead of about the money would be like literally getting hit with buzzsaws.
• Catharsis Factor: Considering that the majority of the cast are shallow, assholes, or both, it's unsurprising that many feel satisfaction at seeing Dease's work and other artworks murdering them. Especially since the artworks only kill people who use them for greed.
• Crosses the Line Twice: First, Gretchen's corpse is discovered bled out around the Sphere exhibit and the patrons come in and think the gruesome scene is part of the art show. Then, a school tour is brought to the gallery... and then the children start playing around in the blood which they think is fake.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Coco is popular amongst the film fans, likely due to being portrayed by Natalia Dyer in cute glasses. Helps that she's undoubtedly the most innocent person working at the museum, which explains why she's the Sole Survivor next to John Malkovich's character.
• Funny Moments:
  • In a fit of anger, Morf tells an artist that "the admiration I had for your work has completely evaporated!". That obviously sounded way more scathing in his head.
  • Coco having to be the first to find the bodies quickly becomes a running joke. By the time she finds Morf's corpse, her freakout actually seems to be more out of annoyance than horror.
• Narm:
  • The penultimate scene where Rhodora dies because of a tattoo of a buzzsaw on her neck can be hard to take seriously. It's almost as if the writers remembered at the last minute that they had to kill her off and were strapped for ideas.
  • Hoboman chasing down Morf begins with him rather awkwardly blocking his way with its crutches and then swinging it around wildly yet ineffectually. It may also bring to mind "Robot Homeless Person/#RoboHobo".
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • Hoboman. In a film about art killing people, it's pretty much a given that the robot is going to get in on the action.
  • Josephina's fate is the most disturbing. Basically, all of Dease's paintings melt into a gigantic puddle that creeps up her legs and covers her whole body, with one extreme close-up of the paint getting into her eyes. The next morning, we see a mural that has Josephina's terrified face in the middle of it.
• Moe: Coco.
• Older Than They Think: A horror movie that satirizes the art world? You can be talking about this movie or A Bucket of Blood, which is already 60 years old by the time this movie is released.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • The main homeless vendor from the very end of the movie, who ends up selling the valuable Dease paintings for minuscule sums. This is helped by the debate about the Ambiguous Ending nature of his scene.
  • The raspy-voiced VA janitor and Private Investigator Ruskinspear, with their well-acted, back-to-back Mr. Exposition scenes that lay out some of the creepier details about Dease's past.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: It takes nearly one hour for the first death to occur (unless you count Dease). And even then, the deaths are spaced apart by about ten to fifteen minutes.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some actually grow to like Coco more than half of the cast and wish she was more of the focus. Being the only one who's not fully into the art world doesn't help either.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Morf undergoing a Heel–Face Turn would have worked for the film's favor considering the Sanity Slippage he endures with realizing the threat Dease's artworks have, but just when it seems he's getting better, he's instead killed off in the end.
  • The entire fantasy horror twist. Many remarked that the film is better when it starts as just a cynical look at the art industry.
• The Woobie: Coco really needs a break, considering she keeps being treated poorly and then comes across three dead bodies. Her leaving the art world by the end of the movie is a blessing.

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