Review by Ian Keogh

Eva is an isolated young teenage girl, attending a prestigious school on a scholarship. Her mother works all hours to make up the fees the scholarship doesn’t cover, but Eva’s perceived lower class status makes every school day a living hell. She’s bullied by Violetta, but even worse is being ignored by Amber, whom she’s known since childhood, as the daughter of a rich woman whose house Eva’s mother cleans. At least her brother Mackenzie isn’t afflicted by such pretensions.

With Heartbeat Maria Llovet revisits many themes applied to her earlier Eros/Psyche, not least the uncertain and depressed teenage girl placed in a sinister school environment, although the same sex attraction is played down here in what’s a more successful moody exploration. It features stronger motivations and Llovet’s sumptuous linework provides a very non-traditional look for what develops into a gruesome horror story with a side dish of secrets awaiting revelation. It begins when Eva sees class outsider Donatien cradling the naked body of a murdered girl. For some reason she doesn’t give him up to the police, nor show the photo she instinctively snapped on her phone when witnessing the murder.

Llovet maintains an unnerving contrast between the decorative beauty of her art, rich in detail, and the dark deeds that play out, exploring some dangerously sordid fantasies. Eva’s narrative thoughts already have a wistful yearning to them, sometimes over-written, and as she sinks into what most would consider a perverted world it empowers her to confront the problems of her life.

This definitely isn’t the usual form of horror, emotional melodrama certainly, but also with the compelling nature of anticipating a car crash. The chances are this will either attract you for reasons you’ll find as difficult to analyse as Eva, or repel you. Will you be the moth to the flame?