By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.3 cats
Director: Goran Stolevski
Starring: Alice Englert | Anamaria Marinca | Carloto Cotta | Félix Maritaud | Noomi Rapace | Sara Klimoska
Country: australia, serbia, united_kingdom
Year: 2022
Running time: 108
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8296030/reference/
Brett says: “Fitting snugly within the borders of the enigmatic sub-genre dubbed elevated horror, YOU WON’T BE ALONE takes a challenging approach to the theme of examining what it is to be human. This is the feature film debut for Goran Stolevski, and what a crafty debut it is.
“Not knowing what to expect at all, the opening moments registered a reading on the “creep-meter” early on, and from there, the film slowly slithered out of just being amusing lore and intrigue and somehow inched further and further into humanism and existentialist considerations. By 50-60 percent of the way through the film, it becomes apparent that this slow burn of a movie is achieving more than an atmospheric frightfest that it is disguised to be during the exposition and early scenes.
“As one who relishes in the mysteries of the unknown that fuels many successful horror films, it was off-putting at first when the apparent nemesis and vector of evil is introduced early in the film. No, the film does not bother shrouding that character in visual ambiguity like one might expect. However, this turns out to be a marvelous decision in that the mysterious supernatural force is in itself a character that we must get to know and that has a direct impact on the emotional trajectory of the film. That is, this is no ordinary scary flick; the horror is equally in our very existence itself, and as a tagline for the film so accurately states, “It’s a wicked thing, this world.” With that said, optimist film-goers may want to tread lightly.
“As one traverses the first quarter of the film, it becomes clear that this is more of a meditation than full-blown narrative. Easily comparable to Terrence Malick’s early library of films, the majority of the film is metaphysical narration from the mind of the physically muted main character, a young girl who has her autonomy stripped from her at infancy and is only able to learn about humanity through observation and a very clever plot-spoiling mechanism affiliated with the folk horror embedded in the film.
“Wrapped within as a hefty part of its poetic reach is a metaphysical conceit on the unjustness of our world, its lack of fairness, its layers of disappointment, the invalidations associated with patriarchy: all of this experienced with blinders on as active participants, but made more aware through the witness of an outsider. Ironically, the director puts a clever spin on this particular outsider insight as this is not usually a perspective offered in films of this type. The outsider(s) in question are most often perceived as evil and the threats to society in previous installments of this sort of folk tale. So, the morality switch-a-roo is very effective in holding a mirror up for the audience to look into.
“Not to be overlooked by the meditation aspect and approach , there certainly is a marvelously crafted and meticulous narrative playing as the voiceover narration poetically dances throughout the extremely well-edited sequences of character development. This layering of dual stories is right on the nose for both the contemplative themes of the film and the suspenseful “what’s going to happen next” component of the picture.
“If the buy-in is there on the part of the audience, there is a lot of unravel by the end of the movie. In fact, it is fair to say that the statements and observations within reverberate even more after they have had time to stew long after the first viewing. All that said, this is still sewn in with the eerie, bizarre, and sometimes inexplicable nature of the horror genre, But, if the focus is on the end justifying the means, there should be a meaningful reflection available after the all evil deeds are done.
5 cats out of 5 — feline shoutout to all the witches out there
“Recommended for fans of elevated horror, folk horror in particular
“Recommended for fans of films exploring the human condition at large
“Recommended for fans of films that *show* instead of tell
“Not recommended for critics of Terrence Malick-style storytelling
“Not recommended for anyone who doesn’t cope well with acts of animal violence (not as explicit as it could be, but explicit enough and can be a startling set of visuals and a deal-breaker for some film-goers; it’s an important part of the movie’s plot, so it’s not just isolated to one sequence of the film)”
Michael says: “Framed by a story steeped in folk horror, about a woman who was deeply wronged and transformed in to a vengeful spirit, YOU WON’T BE ALONE manages to delve into the mysteries of what makes life the hardship and the glory that it is by showing it through the eyes of ‘the other.’ The plot is twisty and complicated, but involves that afore-mentioned vengeful spirit, who creates an heir of sorts using the body of a girl given to her in an unholy bargain., This heir, lacking the drive for vengeance steeped in her creator, sets out to experience just what makes humanity what it is. Through a series of varied experiences, depending on the form se has taken on, she experiences helplessness, fear, power, arrogance… and eventually belonging, yet there’s still the fact that her creator is a vengeful spirit, and isn’t going to just let her spawn in peace. This Australian/UK/Serbian co-production is an astounding blend of genres and storytelling, with some incredible visuals, and great performances. A little gruesome at times, but I’m a wimp, and I didn’t have trouble getting through it, and it’s definitely worth it. 4 1/2 cats”
Chris says: “Tough to follow at times but it has so much poetry and finesse in its filmmaking that logistics almost seem irrelevant after awhile. What keeps it from becoming another BORDER is that the lead(s) aren’t as compelling as that film’s central character which, given their fluid nature is sort of the point. 3.5 cats”