You Won’t Be Alone Parent Guide

Rumors of “Old-Maid Maria” (Anamaria Marinca) abound in 19^th century Macedonia. Villagers tell tales of a terrible witch (or Wolf-Eateress) who can change shape and perform powerful magic; a nightmarish old woman, covered in burns, who kills as she pleases. The “Old Maid” claims Nevena (Sara Klimoska) when she’s an infant and turns her into a witch at age sixteen. But she soon tires of Nevena, who would rather play with the animals than slaughter them and drink their blood. Maria abandons Nevena to her own devices, but having grown up outside a community, Nevena understands nothing of people or their social expectations. After she accidentally kills a woman, Bosilka (Noomi Rapace), Nevena takes her form and tries to fit in. But human society is as much a mystery to her as witchcraft is to the townsfolk, and she’s going to have to keep moving if she doesn’t want to be discovered.

Artsy movies like this frequently elicit questions from the audience. For this film, I had a lot of them. Questions like “What on earth is happening?” and “Why am I watching this?” and “Why did they make this?” The actual plot is simple enough, but the film takes such an oblique approach to its subject matter that keeping track of the movie feels like a bit of a chore. It’s equal parts cultural documentary about village life in 19^th century Macedonia and artsy horror movie about women and society. Weird combo.

Look, I’ve got a pretty broad tolerance for horror so when I tell you that this movie has some of the weirdest gore I’ve ever seen, I hope you’ll give me some credit. I won’t give you the details of every grisly happening in the film or we’d be here all day, but here’s a highlight for you: In order to take someone’s shape, the witches kill them and then cram their organs into a weird cavity in their chests. Gross, huh? On top of that, there’s a lot of nudity floating around in this movie, both in sexual and non-sexual contexts. On the other hand, there’s no swearing that I noticed, so take some comfort that while you’re watching someone’s organs being stuffed into a sucking chest hole, no one’s going to use any potty words.

For my money, I’d rather watch a horror movie that makes some effort to be scary instead of being this weird and esoteric – this coming from a guy who loves weird and esoteric horror movies. It’s just too much; too many lingering slow-motion shots of peasants cutting straw and not enough…anything else. If artsy and inaccessible are your favourite qualities in movies, though, then this is a must-watch. For everyone else, however, I’d steer clear.