Horroris a multifaceted genre. Sometimes, we can end upequally entranced and disgusted by a film(thinkMidsommarorThe Substance). This is the case with the 2017 Austrian filmHagazussa: A Heathen’s Curse,Lukas Feigelfeld’s feature-length debut preceding his work as a dialogue consultant onThe Zone of Interest. Set in a secluded alpine village in the 15th century,Hagazussafollows 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.
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The horror inHagazussaisn’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.
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“Susie, do you know anything about… witches?”
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 herreach 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.LikePearlandCarrie,Hagazussaisthe kind of movie where we can’t help but say, “good for her,“when it’s over.
Hagazussais a jaw-dropping, wild watch. What makes this film so unique comes down to the way thatit puts ferociously disgusting details into a pristine and starkly beautiful setting. In the film, animals and nature are a sourceof 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 formore folk horror films set in the wilderness.
Similar toRobert Eggers’TheWitch,Hagazussais strongly grounded in folklore and the stark, intimidating beauty of the mountains. And similar toTheSubstance,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 ofthe best of European horror.
Hagazussais available to watch on Prime Video in the U.S.
Watch on Prime Video
