Heresy (2026) by Didier Konings

Director: Didier Konings

Year: 2026

Country: Netherlands

Alternate Titles: Witte Wieven; White Women

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Living in a remote village, a young woman grows up trying to come to terms with the religious sect ordering her to be involved in a dangerous ceremony that ends her dreams of being a mother with the man she loves, and she must try to make her way to safety through the cursed woods.

Review:

This was a really solid and likable folk horror effort. Among the better elements featured here come from the immensely likable setup that allows for this kind of inadmirable folk-horror effort this dwells in. the initial setup offering a chance to get introduced to the community at large, where they’re lives in the woods are bound by superstition and religion and her being forced to partake in the culture at play around her to the detriment of her best interests by starting a relationship with the other guy in the village which goes against the rules being enforced by the elders sets this up in a rather fun way. The different ideas about how society operates, why they’re so fearful of the woods around them, or why the whole trip revolved around the need to conceive as her desire to bear children, are so important despite all the different instructions imposed on her.

That makes the whole thing feel immensely slow-going and rather familiar, with the whole thing reeking of the kind of society where it never really answers anything that takes place. Far too much of the second half here is reliant on the type of society that raises plenty of questions about the type of control elders have over others, and the belief in religious practices older than they can remember, but hardly ever does anything interesting with it. It’s the same old setup that so many others have utilized and doesn’t really offer much change in terms of how it all comes together, especially when the whole thing is filled with a series of weird hallucinogenic visions she has about these bizarre creatures in the middle of the woods that help her along her journey. Being that it’s so short and having the chance to do this makes it all the more frustrating, but since these are the only issues here, there’s still a lot to like here.

Overview: ***.5/5

An intriguing enough take on the style, there’s a lot more to like here than expected, even if there are some drawbacks that are prominent enough to lower it slightly. Those with an appreciation for this style of genre fare, are huge fans of folk horror as a style, or who don’t mind the issues here will have a lot to like, while most others out there should heed caution.