Movie Review: Hagazussa

Hagazussa *** / *****

Directed by: Lukas Feigelfeld.

Written by: Lukas Feigelfeld.

Starring: Aleksandra Cwen (Albrun), Celina Peter (Albrun (jung), Claudia Martini (Mutter), Tanja Petrovsky (Swinda), Haymon Maria Buttinger (Dorfpfarrer), Franz Stadler (Sepp), Killian Abeltshauser (Farmer), Gerdi Marlen Simonn (Baby Martha), Thomas Petruo (Doctor), Judith Geerts (Nun).

 

There’s a difference between a slow burn horror film and a glacially paced horror film – and Hagzussa is just on the right side of that line. It’s another in a series of films since Robert Eggers’ The Witch that looks back to the past to find horrors – and mixes the true to life horrors of that time, with a more traditional horror movie. This film is set in the 15^th Century, and for much of the runtime, you would be forgiven in thinking it was just a movie about how awful it would have been to be a woman in that time period. This is basically a series of four vignettes in the life of Albrun – the first two being that true life horror, before the second two get into more extreme horror than you were probably expecting. The film is slowly paced and ambiguous – and even when it picks up, it hardly becomes less of either. But for viewers who are patient – and like this kind of horror – it eventually pays off.

 

The first two segments take up more than an hour of the runtime of this 100-minute movie – and writer/director Lukas Feigelfeld is in no hurry to get to the “good stuff” in them. The first takes place when Albrun is a little girl – watching her mother, her sole caretaker, slowly die with no help from anyone – who is convinced that she is a witch. The second segment has Albrun as an adult, still living on her remote goat farm, now with a child of her own (who the father is remains a mystery). Another young woman seemingly wants to be her friend – and the film drags out the reveal of just how untrue that is for a long time. When her true nature is revealed, in horrible ways, Albrun becomes the person the village believes her to be. The third segment is a psychedelic trip as Albrun ventures into the forest with her baby, and eats some mushrooms, before doing something awful. The fourth is the aftermath of that – as the ramifications become clear to Albrun.

 

This is Feigelfeld’s debut film as a writer/director, and its remarkably assured for a first timer. The pace may be too slow at times, and yet he is an expert at building up the atmosphere, the sense of impending doom, and establishing this horrible time and place, and Albrun’s place in it. He is aided greatly by Aleksandra Cwen as the adult Albrun, who doesn’t shy away from anything, and pushes on through to the most horrible end result imaginable.

 

I have a feeling that Feigelfeld will make a great horror film at some point in his career – even if Hagzussa isn’t it. It’s too slow, too measured for that. And yet, when he wants to shock you, he can – and the shock hits all the harder because of the patience and care he has taken to set it all up. It isn’t a great film – but it may be the first film of a great filmmaker.