[ad_1]
Horror is a multifaceted genre. Sometimes, we can end up equally entranced and disgusted by a film (think Midsommar or The Substance). This is the case with the 2017 Austrian film Hagazussa: A Heathen’s Curse, Lukas Feigelfeld‘s feature-length debut preceding his work as a dialogue consultant on The Zone of Interest. Set in a secluded alpine village in the 15th century, Hagazussa follows a young goat farmer, Albrun (Celina Peter), and her mother (Claudia Martini) who are treated as outsiders and called witches by the villagers. Albrun’s mother gets sick with the plague and soon passes away, but Albrun continues to live on in her mother’s house, tending to the goats into her adulthood alongside her newborn. But things begin to spiral out of control when the adult Albrun (Aleksandra Cwen) obtains her mother’s skull from the village priest.
‘Hagazussa’ Depicts the Horrors of Social Isolation
The horror in Hagazussa isn’t supernatural, but rather, is deeply rooted in human fears. At the beginning of the film, Albrun and her mother are in their home when masked villagers weilding torches surround the cabin, yelling that they are witches and should be burned. Already, Feigelfeld is setting Albrun and her mother apart as outcasts who have endured mistreatment and isolation from their community. When Albrun is an adult, the persecution has yet to cease. She befriends a woman named Swinda (Tanja Petrovsky), but, believing Albrun to be a witch, Swinda completely turns on her, introducing her to a man who then sexually assaults her with Swinda’s assistance. There is a universal pain that viewers can relate to in seeing Albrun realize that she is part of a cruel joke, as she experiences quite the extreme case of bullying and harassment fueled by hate and fear.
Albrun experiences the unimaginable, and as a result, she chooses to fight back. The film tracks the process of Albrun trying to assimilate at first, but then, as her isolation from others and traumatic memories spiral her into madness, we see her reach her full potential as a witch. She does what she does out of necessity, embracing who she truly is and what she’s been trying to suppress for years. Despite some of the most disturbing decisions Albrun makes (and there are many), the viewer still roots for her, a result of Aleksandra Cwen’s stellar acting and an Feigelfeld’s empathetic script. Like Pearl and Carrie, Hagazussa is the kind of movie where we can’t help but say, “good for her,” when it’s over.
Lukas Feigelfeld Blends Beauty and Dread in ‘Hagazussa’
Hagazussa is a jaw-dropping, wild watch. What makes this film so unique comes down to the way that it puts ferociously disgusting details into a pristine and starkly beautiful setting. In the film, animals and nature are a source of both beauty and disgust. In one early scene, Albrun finds a decomposing deer skull in the snow. In another, she takes psychedelic mushrooms. As she is tripping, she sees both the beauty of geometric patterns in tree branches, and hallucinates her dead mother. All of the film’s horror happens in a very visceral, physical way, with no supernatural forces present. The forest in this film is watchful and quiet, a character in and of itself. The nature is visually stunning, making an argument for more folk horror films set in the wilderness.
Similar to Robert Eggers‘ The Witch, Hagazussa is strongly grounded in folklore and the stark, intimidating beauty of the mountains. And similar to The Substance, it will probably also leave you feeling genuinely sick by the end with its grisly imagery that doesn’t hold back. It also has an element of social commentary, calling out the dark consequences of human cruelty, even the trickle-down effect of misogyny, which sadly dates back hundreds of years. This underrated, starkly gorgeous movie deserves to join the ranks of the best of European horror.
- Release Date
- May 17, 2018
- Director
- Lukas Feigelfeld
- Cast
- Aleksandra Cwen , Claudia Martini , Tanja Petrovsky , Haymon Maria Buttinger , Celina Peter , Gerdi Marlen Simon , Franz Stadler , Thomas Petruo , Judith Geerts , Kilian Abeltshauser , Maximilian Hinterberger , Richard Gerum , Leona Berner , Fabienne Peter , Malena Berner , Iris Berner , Andrea Esletzbichler , Martin Eisl , Benjamin Travincek , Simon Lubinski
- Runtime
- 102 Minutes
Hagazussa is available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
[ad_2]
Source link
