History Film / ThePerfection

''The Perfection'' is a 2019 psychological horror-thriller film directed by Richard Shepard. The movie premiered at Fantastic Fest, and was purchased by Creator/{{Netflix}} one week later to be released worldwide through the platform.

* AnArmAndALeg: Charlotte and Lizzie both lose a limb by the end of the film, Lizzie from amputating her hand and Charlotte thanks to getting a knife through her forearm; Anton loses all of his.
* AndIMustScream: Anton is reduced to a limbless torso with his eyes and mouth sewn shut as he is made to listen to a final duet between Charlotte and Lizzie.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: The Bachoff Method is the only way to achieve true musical perfection, so that's why it has to be done.
** Charlotte justifies deceiving Lizzie into chopping her own hand off since it was the only way to free her from Anton’s control
* LipstickLesbian: Both Charlotte and Lizzie look conventionally femenine and are in a passionate relationship with each other.

* MistakenForDisease: Lizzie becomes convinced she's been infected by a terrible mystery disease in the middle of rural China when she gets sick on a bus and sees bugs spreading out of her arm, and she ends up [[spoiler: cutting off her hand]] in a desperate attempt to stop it. [[spoiler: Lizzie's lover Charlotte had actually poisoned her in order to make her sever her hand and free her from the poisonous environment of their music academy.]]

* SlippingAMickey: Charlotte gives what Lizzie thinks are hangover pills but is in fact seizure medicine whose side effects include vomiting and hallucinations.

!!Contains the following tropes:

* AmputationStopsSpread: Lizzie is made to believe this after seeing imaginary bugs crawling out from her hand.

* TheSociopath: Anton. A sadist ephebophile who rapes his female students when they make a mistake. He also never takes blame for his actions, justifying himself as a "taskmaster, [[BlatantLies not a monster]]" and "[[BelievingTheirOwnLies not some random pervert]]" but just "having a little fun". Later on, he begs for mercy and feigns remorse, saying that he is "sick" and needs help, showing that all of his justifications are bullshit.

* AdultFear: Lizzie's situation in UsefulNotes/{{China}} is this both before and after TheReveal. Before, being violently ill with a (potentially deadly) disease in a foreign country with no medical help in sight. After, being drugged and gaslit into a paranoid state by a trusted friend/lover.

* TheVoiceless: Theiss and Jeffrey, [[ThoseTwoBadGuys Anton's fellow music teachers]]. They're supposedly great musicians themselves but we never see or hear them play, making this an informed ability.

* TheSociopath: Anton. A sadist ephebophile who rapes his female students when they make a mistake. He also never takes blame for his actions, justifying himself as a "taskmaster, [[BlatantLies not a monster]]" and "[[BelievingTheirOwnLies not some random pervert]]" but just "having a little fun". Later on, he begs for mercy and feigns remorse, saying that he is "sick" and needs help, showing that all of his justifications are bullshit.

* AdultFear: Lizzie's situation in China is this both before and after TheReveal. Before, being violently ill with a (potentially deadly) disease in a foreign country with no medical help in sight. After, being drugged and gaslit into a paranoid state by a trusted friend/lover.

Charlotte Willmore (Creator/AllisonWilliams) was a [[TeenGenius prodigy]] on the cello in her teenage years, on the course for a promising career that she suddenly quit to take care of her terminally ill mother after she suffered a stroke. After her mother dies years later, she reintegrates with her former music academy's activity by reaching out to academy head Anton and traveling to Shanghai to help select a new student.

* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: Anton's M.O., just replacing "hit" with "rape".

* {{Hallucinations}}: Charlotte induces them in Lizzie by lying to her and giving Lizzie her late mother's levetiracetam (claiming it's ibuprofen), which has this side effect if mixed with alcohol (she gave it to her as a hangover cure). She then makes Lizzie there are bugs crawling under her skin (literally) to trick her into cutting off her own hand.
* HateSink: Anton, obviously. At first he comes across as nothing more than a smug, slimy, tactless jerk, then he turns away Lizzie after Charlotte forces her to cut her hand off, saying that her talent is gone, despite the fact that amputees can still play musical instruments, and then it turns out that he's a serial rapist.

* RedHerring: The airborne sickness that gets repeatedly mentioned in China; it has no actual effect on the plot beyond Lizzie's paranoia that she has contracted it.

-->'''Lizzie:''' This is for what you did to me... (''thwack!'') ...and for what you did to Charlotte! (''thwack!'') And this? This is for every other girl who trusted your ''sick, SORRY ASS!'' (''thwack!'')

''The Perfection'' is a 2019 horror film directed by Richard Shepard. The movie was released on an Fantastic Fest, and was one week later purchased by Creator/{{Netflix}} to be released worldwide through the platform.

When troubled musical prodigy Charlotte (Creator/AllisonWilliams) seeks out Elizabeth (Creator/LoganBrowning), the new star pupil of her former school, the encounter sends both musicians down a sinister path with shocking consequences.

The movie is a twisty thriller filled with things that only make sense after a while and has many fake outs about its own genre.

''Given the twisty nature of the film, all spoilers are unmarked.''

-->'''Lizzie:''' This is for what you did to me... (''thwack!'') ...and for what you did to Charlotte! (''thwack!'') And this? This is for every other girl who trusted your ''sick, SORRY ASS!!!'' (''thwack!'')
* BattleCouple: Charlotte and Lizzie's fight against Anton cements them as a (particularly dysfunctional) version of this.

* GenreShift: The film is divided into different 'acts' with the tone and genre shifting throughout. At first it seems like a psychological drama, then it seems to be slipping into a zombie horror film, then to psychological thriller that seems like a cross between ''Film/AllAboutEve'' and ''Film/BlackSwan''. Then comes the twist. Essentially, it's a psychological horror.

* HateSink: Anton, obviously. At first he comes across as nothing more than a smug, slimy, tactless jerk, then he turns away Lizzie after Charlotte forces her to cut her hand off, saying that her talent is gone, despite the fact that amputees can still play musical instruments and then later it turns out that he's a serial rapist.
** His equally perverted henchmen, Theiss and Jeffrey count as well.

* PsychoLesbian: PlayedWith- initially, Charlotte seems to be a straightforward example with her previous time in a psychiatric ward and violent manipulation of Lizzie, but the reveal of her [[WellIntentionedExtremist true motivations]] puts this into question.

* RapeDiscretionShot: A flashback shows Anton naked about to rape Charlotte but the film cuts away before the viewer sees anything else.

* TheReveal: Several. Notably, that Charlotte purposefully caused Lizzie's sickness, that Anton sexually abused both women during their time as his students, and that Charlotte and Lizzie have been working together to seek revenge against him.

When troubled musical prodigy Charlotte (Creator/AllisonWilliams) seeks out Elizabeth (Logan Browning), the new star pupil of her former school, the encounter sends both musicians down a sinister path with shocking consequences.

* [[WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou Why Did You Make Me Rape You?]] - Anton's M.O.

''The Perfection'' is a horror film directed by Richard Shepard. The movie was released on an Fantastic Fest, and was one week later purchased by Creator/{{Netflix}} to be released worldwide through the platform.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/9dae7700776c5032a9431168872f8be2adaf1c32_0.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''[[TagLine It's time to face the music.]]'']]

'''''The Perfection''''' is a horror film directed by Richard Shepard. The movie was released on an Fantastic Fest, and was one week later purchased by Creator/{{Netflix}} to be released worldwide through the platform.

* EyeScream[=/=]MouthStitchedShut: Anton's eyes and mouth are stitched up at the end.

* ItsTheOnlyWay / IDidWhatIHadToDo: The Bachoff Method is the only way to achieve true musical perfection, so that's why it has to be done.
* LipstickLesbian: Both Charlotte and Lizzie.

* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: Anton Bachoff (pronounced “back off”).

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Charlotte drugs Lizzie and makes her hallucinate that she is infested with bugs, causing her to cut off her hand. Initially believed to be because of jealousy, Charlotte did it to save Lizzie from Anton's control.

* AintTooProudToBeg: Upon being cornered, Anton says he's sick and needs help. It doesn't help him.