Director: Gabriel Bier Gislason
Year: 2023
Country: Denmark
Alternate Titles: Natten har øjne
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After meeting a potential partner, a woman joins her on a trip back to her mother’s house after a stroke leaves her paralyzed, and while recuperating she believes the upcoming stress is due to a possession of a dybbuk demon that’s resurfaced and must battle the spirit to free her.
Review:
This was a pretty solid if slightly underwhelming genre effort. One of the better elements present here comes from the highly engaging setup that provides an incredibly fun starting point for the whole situation. After initially bringing it together with a fine romance angle between them that includes a fine meet-cute at a bookstore and their eventual connection that builds up over the course of the next couple of days together, the first half of the film is incredibly well-accomplished with a great introduction to their relationship. Featuring the slow introduction of the Jewish Orthodox traditions and regulations that are given much more credence in the second half when the chaos starts to interject itself into the film, the film starts off incredibly well with the way this is presented.
This allows for the film to turn rather fun once it becomes a bit more obvious about the supernatural intentions behind the visit and her mother’s involvement. Generating some fantastic early warning signs with the standoffish behavior, strange powders and objects left in odd locations around the house, and the protective nature of the mother trying to seemingly harm her before turning around to be protective with a fantastic revelation of what’s going on, there’s quite a lot going on here which makes for a rather fun time here. Realizing the full extent of what’s going on and the necessary requirement for getting the sacred ritual needed to free her from its control, it’s unique enough on the exorcism effort that it’s got quite a lot to like about it that holds it up overall.
There are some drawbacks to the film that bring it down. One of the main issues here is the overall relaxed pace that requires this to be far more laid-back and reserved than those who require far more activity than what we get here. The emphasis on this one being built around the relationship that emerges between the two and the mother once she returns home makes for a lot of awkwardness and uncomfortable moments in the first half as the focus is more on the conflict that arises over how to best care for the stroke victim despite all evidence to the contrary providing this with nothing out of the ordinary being presented so it just comes off as a territorial struggle for her affections which is fine enough but takes up way too much time before getting to the good parts. Combined with the frustration of not being able to see the obvious which is what makes this stuff last as long as it does, these are the films’ main drawbacks.
Overview: ***.5/5
A highly effective and enjoyable genre effort without too much really wrong, the fact that there’s not much in the way of flaws featured here and those aren’t too bad anyway which makes for a generally solid time. Those who are more in tune with this type of slow-burn stories or are more favorable towards the positives will have the most to like here while most others that don’t like those features should heed caution.
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