五年前,仿佛被魔鬼所控制的凯蒂(Katie Featherston 饰)杀害了自己的男朋友、姐姐、姐夫,并带走他们尚在襁褓中的孩子亨特,不知所终。时间来到2011年,一个平凡幸福的四口之家,美丽女孩爱丽克丝(凯瑟琳·牛顿 Kathryn Newton 饰)过着无忧无虑的生活,她每天和男友本(麦特·西弗里 Matt Shively 饰)通过视频聊天,平日里本也会拿着摄像机随时拍摄。某天,无依无靠的小男孩罗比(Brady Allen 饰)入住爱丽克丝的家,罗比沉默寡言,并声称有一个名叫托比的朋友。爱丽克丝他们起初不以为意,但是渐渐却发现房屋里接二连三有奇怪诡异的事情发生。
在本的建议下,他们在家中各个角落安装摄像头,监控着白天夜晚所发生的一切。屏幕前,令人匪夷所思且毛骨悚然的景象悄悄上演……
Fleeing from their violent father, siblings Luci?a and Adria?n take refuge in a remote mansion. With the help of a hidden micro-camera on a cat, Luci?a uncovers a terrifying secret: their neighbors are part of a criminal network that kidnaps teenage girls to make snuff films, and they intend to get rid of the siblings. As Lucía fights to protect her brother, she must face a dark family curse that follows them into their newfound sanctuary.
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.