伊薇(尼娜·凯莉 Nina Kiri 饰)肩负着照顾临终母亲的重任,她渴望逃离支离破碎的现实带来的孤独感。如今,她住在一间堆满感伤纪念品和回忆的房子里,理智和生活秩序都维系在她制作的超自然播客节目《底音》上。虽然她通常对搭档贾斯汀发给她的那些令人毛骨悚然的音频文件持怀疑态度,但最新收到的音频却让她感到不同寻常。一对年轻备孕夫妇的十段从未公开录音逐一揭晓,每一段都比上一段更加不祥。随着伊薇将这些录音与她目前的遭遇进行对比,隐藏的信息逐渐显现,将她推向疯狂的边缘……
When, at the beginning of Deus Irae, Father Javier stares at a crucifix, his expressions and his hands suggest that the nerves are consuming him. A flashback reveals that this priest devotes his life to visiting families that claim to have seen things that do not belong to this world and cleansing their homes from the demons that try to possess them. But, upon returning to those houses, he notices that the evidence is always destroyed. This way, he discovers that a clan is after him, and must decide whether to hide from them or join them. In times when horror cinema tends to fall into the hands of directors that seek to build narratives that are introspective and close to reality, Pedro Cristiani goes back to old-school horror, where gore and the physical experience are above any other kind of feeling. A cinema that places the camera in front of the faces of the bloodiest demons and, instead of giving logic to them, chooses to face them whatever the cost.
Didier Konings’ simmering mediaeval horror Witte Wieven explores the confluence of religion and patriarchy in an excessively puritanical Dutch village. Blamed by her community for being childless, Frieda immerses herself in prayer and ritual. When she returns unscathed from the forbidden forest surrounding the village, having evaded a lecherous butcher, she is condemned as an agent of the devil. Frieda, however, finds new faith in the dark powers that inhabit the woods.
Shot in a reduced colour palette at the edge of visibility, Konings’ gripping film constructs a convincing pre-modern society whose practices it elucidates with patience and attention. Although set in the Middle Ages, Witte Wieven displays an unmistakably contemporary spirit, crafting a feminist parable about women discovering new ways of understanding their lives and the world.