Elijah Guo is probably best known as an actor who’s been in Law & Order, Special Victims Unit, High Maintenance and other shows. In Tulip Street, though, Guo turns his hand to writing and directing, and shows that is not in any way lacking talent in these departments.
The film follows two sisters spending an evening together with wine, jazz and movies. This is their last night in their childhood home on Tulip Street, because Erin’s real estate agent husband has sold it. The house itself, from the few exterior shots, seems remote, perched on a rocky hill. The sisters, we soon learn, are not your average every day women, despite looking every bit the part. They’ve had a lifelong interest in slightly occult pastimes, like Ouija boards and staring contests where the loser sits and waits to die.
After curling up to watch Sunset Boulevard, the sisters head off to their respective rooms to sleep. And that’s when things get creepy, weird and a tad surreal.
The two sisters, incidentally, are played by Rivers Duggan (Diane) and Amy White (Erin). Duggan, is absolutely believable as the younger, slightly less confident sister, with large scared eyes and a lot of frightened memories from the past. White, on the other hand, is perfect as the older sister who’s strong, confident, and up for anything – especially anything slightly scary or dangerous. These two play off each other as they really had known each other all their lives. They’re clearly well to do, perhaps professionals. They drink red wine from posh glasses, are dressed beautifully and have clearly lived comfortable lives.
Despite what appears to be the ordinariness of their lives, there is something dark and inscrutable going on beneath the surface with these two, and it is that unknown dark something that really gives this film its power.
After the pair go to sleep, they are each woken by an apparition of the other, smiling insanely. After the realize this, Erin, the more adventurous older sister, feels an irresistible urge, and this is when things get quite bizarre. We’re not quite sure if we’ve entered a time warp, another dimension, or perhaps someone’s overstimulated dreams. Suffice it to say, Guo is clearly quite comfortable with ambiguity.
This is one of those horror films that’s open to interpretation about its most basic facts. There’s no indication that something terrible happened, as is so often the case in horror movies. But there are books about fairies, backwards music (which in the 1980s was a sure sign of Satanism), unexplained fires. Could Lucifer be involved in the lives of these two upper class women? Perhaps they’re both witches? Perhaps Diane has engineered some sort of revenge against the awful sister who used to torment her when she was a child? We really don’t know.
In some ways, the denouement of this film reminded me of a line from The Beatles’ song, Norwegian wood: “So I lit a fire, isn’t it good Norwegian wood.” In the song, this is a double entendre since we don’t know if the narrator, after staying over for a date, has lit a fire in the fireplace or set fire to the apartment. Similarly in Tulip Street, we’re never quite sure what Erin is really up to at the end of the film. In fact, the closest parallel I can think of to the end of this film is the extended montage at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s not quite that out there. But the ending of Tulip Street is as dramatic, tense and intriguing as it is opaque.
This is an example of a short that I wish had been a feature. It’s simple – all filmed in one house, with very few characters. It’s easily relatable. But is also pulls us in with both its characters and the mystery at the core of the plot. The cinematography is great, the tiny details in the house (a child’s drawing on the fridge? Who drew it?) are compelling, the relationship between the sisters is simple yet fascinating. I could really have watched this for a lot longer. I certainly hope to see much more of Guo in the future.
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.