Posted by This article reveals the explained plot and the detailed events in Alex de la Iglesia movie Veneciafrenia (Venicephrenia), revealing its meaning, symbols and storyline. We recommend you to read it only after watching the movie, and not before, in order to preserve the pleasure of the first vision.
Veneciafrenia (Venicephrenia) is a 2022 horror film produced by Amazon Prime Video and directed by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia. The film has a very peculiar setting and photography, set in Venice in the middle of the carnival, with masked people who, as in the classic thriller / horror tradition, always inspire fear. The plot of the film presents some points that may be difficult to understand: this article aims to offer an explanation of the plot of the film and the ending.
The plot of Veneciafrenia explained
We are in Venice, in modern times. The inhabitants of the city are furious at the tourists, guilty of coming in large numbers every year, out of control, fueling the transport of large ships and vandalism on the city. The entire city is in an uproar against the ships that carry tourism, and citizens are exasperated because no one wants to do anything to limit the influx of tourists.
In this context, five Spanish tourists arrive in Venice to celebrate Isa’s wedding, that will take place the day after. The city welcome is very bad due to the protests. That night they will go to a secret party, from which only four of them will return: José, Isa’s brother, is missing.
As the film progresses, and the group gets in contact with the police to find José, the viewer comes into contact with some dark characters: a murderer who kills tourists mercilessly, masked in a blood-red mask, another character masked as a plague doctor and a woman, his wife. The doctor is part of an extensive organization that involves many Venetian citizens, which has a very specific goal: to fight the influx of tourists by generating fear. The plan is to spread the word that tourists get kidnapped in Venice, in order to bring down tourism.
The real motive, the identities of the characters and how they carry out the plan bring us to the ending, which deserves a separate explanation.
Venicephrenia: the movie ending explained
The doctor is Ugo Lizardo, director of a Venetian psychiatric institute. He is the father of a young man who died a few months earlier during the protest clashes against large ships: the video of his death is what he watches on his laptop. The wife is obviously also traumatized by this event. The motive that motivates them in the fight against tourists is not only the city that is sinking because of them, but also the son who died in the protest against tourism.
The madman who kills tourists dressed in the red mask is Piero Lizardo, his twin brother. It was Ugo himself who released him from the psychiatric institute. Piero is out of control, and has been killing for some time. At first, Doctor Ugo sees this as a problem, because if the authorities see their protests as a criminal act, they will not be heard. Instead his wife convinces him that perhaps this is the best way: as criminals you can spread fear, and through fear they could obtain more concrete results than through civil protests.
Here is the reason for the video that is shared and made viral at the end of the film: in that video Piero, with his face uncovered, explains why tourists represent the plague of modern days, and explicitly says that through their actions the goal is to generate fear, making tourists spontaneously decide not to come anymore. Obviously by doing this they become easy targets for the police, but it doesn’t matter: they already had in mind to commit suicide immediately after the video. The virality of the video means that they got what they wanted, and now husband and wife decide to kill themselves, avoiding continuing to live in a sinking city, without their son who died in the struggle.
Inspired by the classic horror films of the Italian tradition, the Spanish director creates an enjoyable and even realistic product, since the protests of the Venetian inhabitants against the big ships are taken from the real news.
