Despite tricky underlying assumptions, THE ONES YOU DIDN’T BURN will find a way to make its point known and weave its message of feminist empowerment into your heart.
Movies about witches usually come in two flavors: those that vilify and those that sympathize. The Ukrainian film, IN A DARK, DARK ROOM is the former.
THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE is ostensibly a story about death. André Øvredal’s terrifying film follows Austin (Emile Hirsch) and Tommy (Brian Cox), a father-son team of coroners tasked with examining a body found partially buried beneath a brutal crime scene. Rather than discover and report her tragic story, they inadvertently awaken a powerful witch hellbent on reclaiming her own autonomy.
When most people imagine a spell, they picture an old hag stirring a bubbling cauldron after throwing in the eye of a newt or moss from a local graveyard. While this is certainly a possibility, most spellwork is much more grounded. SUSPIRIA (2018) includes four instances of spells in which dance is used to channel intention, each involving a ritual to charge the invocation.
Writer and director Goran Stolevski uses a story of witches to examine humanity and the sacred cycles of feminine life.
